Executed save oddly blocking short cross (10)
I believe the answer is:
transverse
'cross' is the definition.
(transverse means cross or across)
'executed save oddly blocking short' is the wordplay.
'executed' becomes 'ran' (execute can mean to run or administrate).
'save oddly' becomes 'sv' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'blocking' means one lot of letters goes inside another (to block can mean to plug a gap in something).
'short' becomes 'terse' (synonyms).
'ran'+'sv'='ransv'
'ransv' inserted into 'terse' is 'TRANSVERSE'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for transverse that I've seen before include "Crosswise" , "go in 6 ac [CRISSCROSS]" , "Extending across something" , "Situated across something" , "Crossing" .)