Hired thug maintains odd girl from the south has a petrifying stare (6)
I believe the answer is:
gorgon
'a petrifying stare' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I can't understand how one could define the other.
'hired thug maintains odd girl from the south' is the wordplay.
'hired thug' becomes 'goon' (I've seen this before).
'maintains' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'odd' indicates alternate letters.
'from the south' shows that the letters should be reversed in order (in a down clue, letters go up).
The alternating letters of 'girl' are 'gr'.
'gr' written backwards gives 'rg'.
'goon' enclosing 'rg' is 'GORGON'.
'has' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for gorgon that I've seen before include "Petrifying woman of myth" , "In Greek myth, a snake-haired woman whose look turned watcher to stone" , "Frightening woman" , "Female monster of Greek legend" , "Monster, petrifying glance" .)