European man promises to be shocking (9)
I believe the answer is:
egregious
'be shocking' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'european man promises' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'european' could be 'e' (abbreviation e.g. EU) and 'e' is present in the answer.
'man' could be 'greg' and 'greg' is present in the answer.
'promises' could be 'ious' (promises to pay a debt) and 'ious' is found in the answer.
This accounts for all the letters.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
'to' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for egregious that I've seen before include "Notorious" , "Insufferable" , "Outstandingly villainous" , "Flagrant; appalling" , "Outstandingly bad" .)