Doddery old bachelors originally living in outskirts of Whitby (6)
I believe the answer is:
wobbly
'doddery' is the definition.
Both the definition and answer are adjectives. Perhaps they are linked in a way I don't understand?
'old bachelors originally living in outskirts of whitby' is the wordplay.
'originally' suggests taking the first letters.
'living' becomes 'bl' (I can't justify this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'in' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'outskirts of' suggests removing the centre.
'whitby' with its centre taken out is 'wy'.
The first letters of 'old bachelors' is 'ob'.
'ob'+'bl'='obbl'
'obbl' going into 'wy' is 'WOBBLY'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for wobbly that I've seen before include "Swaying unsteadily" , "Unstable - it may be thrown!" , "Rickety" , "one may be thrown in temper" , "Unstable - tantrum" .)