Crossword Genius

Encountered a bit of resistance, at length (5)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

metre

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'length' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)

'encountered a bit of resistance' is the wordplay.
'encountered' becomes 'met' ('meet' can be a synonym of 'encounter').
'a bit of resistance' becomes 're' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'met'+'re'='METRE'

'at' acts as a link.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for metre that I've seen before include "Unit of length in metric system" , "Basic unit of length" , "100cm" , "Poetic rhythm" , "determined by scanning" .)

I've seen this clue in the Evening Standard.
Want a hint initially instead of a full solution? Install my app