Good victuals dear to the French out East (5)
I believe the answer is:
cheer
'good victuals dear' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I don't understand how one could define the other.
'the french out east' is the wordplay.
'the french' becomes 'cher' (I have seen 'Dear French' mean 'cher' so perhaps 'french' could also mean 'cher').
'out' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'east' becomes 'e' ('E' can be a synonym of 'east').
'cher' placed around 'e' is 'CHEER'.
'to' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for cheer that I've seen before include "Shout encouragingly" , "Give comfort or support to" , "Root" , "Merriment" , "Inspirit" .)