Fruit in this boat around north-east (6)
I believe the answer is:
punnet
'fruit' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both man-made objects as well as being singular nouns.
Maybe you can see a link between them that I don't see?
'in this boat around north-east' is the wordplay.
'in' is an insertion indicator.
'this boat' becomes 'punt' (I've seen this before**).
'around' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'north' becomes 'n' ('N' can be a synonym of 'north').
'east' becomes 'e' ('E' can be a synonym of 'east').
'punt' going around 'n' is 'punnt'.
'punnt' going around 'e' is 'PUNNET'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for punnet that I've seen before include "Strawberry etc. container" , "Small light basket for fruit" , "Little box (of strawberries?)" , "Small basket for 13 Across (6)" , "Fruit 18 Down" .)