Extremely small olive can be used to make gin? (4)
I believe the answer is:
sloe
'gin?' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I don't understand how one could define the other.
'extremely small olive can be' is the wordplay.
'extremely' means to remove the middle letters (only the extremes of the word are used).
'olive can be' becomes 'oe' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should believe this answer much more).
'small' with its middle removed is 'sl'.
'sl'+'oe'='SLOE'
'used to make' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for sloe that I've seen before include "Sour blackthorn fruit" , "Sour blue-black fruit" , "Black fruit" , "Fruit of the blackthorn does't sound fast" , "Wild plum" .)