Give out about tenor showing state of sobriety? (5-4)
I believe the answer is:
stone-cold
'state of sobriety?' is the definition.
Both the answer and definition are adjectives. Perhaps you can see an association between them that I can't see?
'give out about tenor' is the wordplay.
'give out' becomes 'scold' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'about' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'tenor' becomes 'tone' (synonyms).
'scold' placed around 'tone' is 'STONE-COLD'.
'showing' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for stone-cold that I've seen before include "Absolutely without heat" , "At a low temperature" , "Having lost all warmth" .)