High-class fruit eaten by an android (9)
I believe the answer is:
automaton
'android' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both man-made objects as well as being singular nouns.
Maybe you can see an association between them that I can't see?
'high-class fruit eaten by an' is the wordplay.
'high class' becomes 'U' (as in U and non-U speech).
'fruit' becomes 'tomato' (type of fruit).
'eaten by' is an insertion indicator (inserted letters get eaten).
'u'+'tomato'='utomato'
'utomato' going into 'an' is 'AUTOMATON'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for automaton that I've seen before include "being worked invariably" , "working robot" , "One doesn't think" , "Robot figure" , "Mechanical man" .)