E.g. top ten names provided to dangerous criminal (3,4)
I believe the answer is:
hit list
'dangerous criminal' is the definition.
The definition suggests a singular noun which matches the answer.
'e g top ten names provided' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'top' could be 'ist' (resembles 1st) and 'ist' is found within the answer.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
'to' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for hit list that I've seen before include "Assassin's agenda" , "it's best not to be on it" , "Names of victims to be" , "Roll of names to be murdered" , "Assassin's potential workload?" .)