Drilling holes in cog spinning with no energy (9)
I believe the answer is:
schooling
'drilling' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both acts as well as being singular nouns.
Perhaps there's a link between them I don't understand?
'holes in cog spinning with no energy' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'in' is found in the answer.
'no' could be 'o' (resembles 0 - 'no' can mean 'zero') and 'o' is present in the answer.
This may be the basis of clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for schooling that I've seen before include "Instructing" , "support for education" , "Training" , "Education, for 10 across" , "lessons" .)