Female crosses further down: bear doesn't follow (14)
I believe the answer is:
misunderstands
'female crosses further down bear doesn't follow' is the definition.
I can't judge whether this defines the answer.
'female crosses further down bear doesn't' is the wordplay.
'female' becomes 'miss' (miss refers to a young woman).
'crosses' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'further down' becomes 'under' (synonyms).
'bear doesn't' becomes 'stand' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'under'+'stand'='understand'
'miss' enclosing 'understand' is 'MISUNDERSTANDS'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for misunderstands that I've seen before include "gets wires crossed" , "gets the wrong end of the stick" .)