Former lover clearly gutted about writer, having long hidden desirability (10)
I believe the answer is:
expediency
'long hidden desirability' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both human attributes as well as being singular nouns.
Maybe there's an association between them I don't understand?
'former lover clearly gutted about writer' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'former' could be 'ex' (prefix meaning former or onetime) and 'ex' is found in the answer.
'about' could be 'c' (abbreviation for circa) and 'c' is present in the answer.
'writer' could be 'ed' (I've seen this in other clues) and 'ed' is found within the answer.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
'having' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Another definition for expediency that I've seen is " Suitability to the circumstances".)
