He's fiendishly hard up and has my sympathy (4,5)
I believe the answer is:
poor devil
'he's fiendishly hard up and has my sympathy' is the definition.
The answer is a person as well as being a singular noun. This is suggested by the definition.
'he's fiendishly hard up' is the wordplay.
I cannot really see how this works, but
'hard up' could be 'poor' (similar in meaning) and 'poor' is found in the answer.
'he' could be 'dev' and 'dev' is located in the answer.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
I've seen this clue in the Evening Standard.
Want a hint initially instead of a full solution?
Install my app