Figure bags honour with ecstasy, one up for award (7)
I believe the answer is:
nominee
'one up for award' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I can't understand how they can define each other.
'figure bags honour with ecstasy' is the wordplay.
'figure' becomes 'nine' (a number of figure).
'bags' is an insertion indicator (bag can mean secures or steals).
'honour' becomes 'om' (Order of Merit).
'with' says to put letters next to each other.
'ecstasy' becomes 'E' (informal term for the drug).
'nine' going around 'om' is 'nomine'.
'nomine'+'e'='NOMINEE'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for nominee that I've seen before include "One up for a job" , "Candidate - appointed person" , "One put forward as a candidate" , "Candidate for office" , "One whose name is put forward" .)