Fin, say, scales stripped off (4)
I believe the answer is:
limb
'fin' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I don't understand how they can define each other.
'scales stripped off' is the wordplay.
'scales' becomes 'climbs' (I've seen this before).
'stripped off' says to take the centre (the outer letters are stripped off).
The middle of 'climbs' is 'LIMB'.
'say' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for limb that I've seen before include "Bough" , "Branch - member" , "Large tree branch" , "arm, perhaps" , "Part of body or branch of tree" .)