Grabbing instrument, zoo's bear played bottom of scale (8,4)
I believe the answer is:
absolute zero
'bottom of scale' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I cannot see how they can define each other.
'grabbing instrument zoo's bear played' is the wordplay.
'grabbing' indicates putting letters inside.
'instrument' becomes 'lute' (lute is a kind of instrument).
'played' is an anagram indicator (letters playing around).
'zoos'+'bear'='zoosbear'
'zoosbear' with letters rearranged gives 'absozero'.
'lute' going into 'absozero' is 'ABSOLUTE ZERO'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for absolute zero that I've seen before include "Lowest temperature theoretically possible" , "Lowest theoretical temperature" , "can't get lower than this" , "OK?" , "Minus 273 1/4 C approx." .)