Gaslight a politician supporting Catholic in Alabama (3,4)
I believe the answer is:
arc lamp
'gaslight' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I can't see how they can define each other.
'a politician supporting catholic in alabama' is the wordplay.
'politician' becomes 'MP' (Member of Parliament).
'supporting' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other) (in a down clue, some letters go below others).
'catholic' becomes 'rc' (Roman Catholic).
'in' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'alabama' becomes 'al' (abbreviation).
'rc' placed inside 'al' is 'arcl'.
'a'+'mp'='amp'
'amp' put after 'arcl' is 'ARC-LAMP'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for arc lamp that I've seen before include "Source of bright light" , "Electric light source" , "one of the bright lights" , "Intense illuminator" .)