Fare badly at first missing punches? (4)
I believe the answer is:
eats
'fare' is the definition.
(eats can mean food)
'badly at first missing punches?' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'at' is present in the answer.
The remaining letters 'es' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for eats that I've seen before include "Provisions" , "Food (slang)" , "Swallows food" , "worries" , "Commonly, they eliminate" .)
