Explain the meaning of painter prettifying houses (9)
I believe the answer is:
interpret
'explain the meaning of' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'painter prettifying houses' is the wordplay.
'houses' indicates the answer is hidden within the clue (part of the clue houses the answer).
'INTERPRET' can be found hidden inside 'painter prettifying'.
(Other definitions for interpret that I've seen before include "Gloss needed" , "Discern the meaning of" , "Explain the meaning of, perhaps a foreign language" , "Translate, decode" , "Construe" .)