English chap with nearly nothing guarding key given name of miser? (8)
I believe the answer is:
ebenezer
'name of miser?' is the definition.
(as in Ebenezer Scrooge)
'english chap with nearly nothing' is the wordplay.
'english' becomes 'E' (abbreviation).
'chap with' becomes 'bene' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'nearly' means to remove the last letter.
'nothing' becomes 'zero' (synonyms).
'zero' with its last letter removed is 'zer'.
'e'+'bene'+'zer'='EBENEZER'
'guarding key given' is the link.
I am not very happy about this link. Some or all of it may be part of another bit of the clue.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for ebenezer that I've seen before include "__ Scrooge; Dickens character" , "someone cold" , "First name of Scrooge, miser" , "and 22: Dickensian miser" , "Christian name of Scrooge, miser" .)