Dread about the unknown, such as birds? (8)
I believe the answer is:
feathery
'dread about the unknown such as birds?' is the definition.
I can't judge whether this definition defines the answer.
'dread about the unknown' is the wordplay.
'dread' becomes 'fear' (synonyms).
'about' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'unknown' becomes 'y' (algebra).
'fear' placed around 'the' is 'feather'.
'feather'+'y'='FEATHERY'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for feathery that I've seen before include "like birds" , "Fluffy" , "being described as down" .)