Hope against forfeiting to ultimate Darwinist in Creation (9)
I believe the answer is:
intention
'hope' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'against forfeiting to ultimate darwinist in creation' is the wordplay.
I cannot really see how this works, but
'against' could be 'on' (I've seen this in other clues) and 'on' is present in the answer.
'in' is within the answer.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for intention that I've seen before include "Aim, objective" , "end" , "Aim, plan" , "Design" , "Aim, purpose" .)