He protects troubled lass in difficult situation (6)
I believe the answer is:
hassle
'difficult situation' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both acts as well as being singular nouns.
Perhaps there's a link between them I don't understand?
'he protects troubled lass' is the wordplay.
'protects' means one lot of letters goes inside another (outer letters protect inside letters).
'troubled' is an anagram indicator.
'lass' with letters rearranged gives 'assl'.
'he' placed around 'assl' is 'HASSLE'.
'in' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for hassle that I've seen before include "Bother, fuss" , "Struggle" , "Irritating inconvenience" , "Informally, annoyance or quarrel" , "problem" .)