Dress material for soldier and NCO (8)
I believe the answer is:
sergeant
'nco' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'dress material for soldier' is the wordplay.
'dress material' becomes 'serge' (serge is a kind of material. I am not sure about the 'dress' bit.).
'for' says to put letters next to each other.
'soldier' becomes 'ant' (soldier is a type of ant).
'serge'+'ant'='SERGEANT'
'and' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for sergeant that I've seen before include "one with stripes" , "NCO; Death a fell one, Hamlet" , "Army rank" , "Military rank" , "Pepper, say" .)