He abandons the funny, cut-throat tradesman (4)
I believe the answer is:
todd
'cut-throat tradesman' is the definition.
I know nothing about this answer so I cannot judge whether it can be defined by this definition.
'he abandons the funny' is the wordplay.
'abandons' is a deletion indicator.
'funny' becomes 'odd' (I've seen this before).
'the' with 'he' taken out is 't'.
't'+'odd'='TODD'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for todd that I've seen before include "Richard --, was Guy Gibson in The Dam Busters" , "19th-century demon barber of Fleet Street" , "Sweeney, Fleet Street barber" , "Demon 12 of Fleet Street" , "Irish-born British actor and soldier, Richard, d. 2009" .)