Gloss over least bit before he was ready (9)
I believe the answer is:
whitewash
'gloss over' is the definition.
(I know that gloss over can be written as whitewash)
'least bit before he was ready' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'bit' could be 'i' (resembles 1, a binary digit or bit) and 'i' is located in the answer.
'he' could be 'wash' and 'wash' is present in the answer.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for whitewash that I've seen before include "Gloss over, suppress" , "Used on walls to cover up a misdemeanour?" , "Gloss over faults with wall colouring?" , "Cover up - wall coating" , "overwhelming defeat" .)