Gloom enveloped lad, abandoned as a waif (7)
I believe the answer is:
mudlark
'a waif' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'gloom enveloped lad abandoned' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
an anagram of 'lad' is 'dla' which is located in the answer.
'gloom' could be 'murk' (I've seen this before) and 'murk' is found within the leftover letters.
This accounts for all the letters.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
'as' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for mudlark that I've seen before include "flyer" , "One scavenging beside river" , "Scavenger" .)