Fairest clergyman's about, starts to eat tinned tuna (9)
I believe the answer is:
prettiest
'fairest' is the definition.
Both the answer and definition are superlative adjectives. Maybe they are linked in a way I don't understand?
'clergyman's about starts to eat tinned tuna' is the wordplay.
'clergyman' becomes 'priest' (priest is a kind of clergyman).
'about' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'starts to' suggests taking the first letters.
The initial letters of 'eat tinned tuna' is 'ett'.
'priest' enclosing 'ett' is 'PRETTIEST'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for prettiest that I've seen before include "Most attractive" , "Most charming" , "Most beautiful" .)