I see teacher returning greeting by male teacher of distinction (9)
I believe the answer is:
maharishi
'teacher of distinction' is the definition.
'maharishi' can be an answer for 'teacher' (I've seen this before). I am not certain of the 'of distinction' bit.
'i see teacher returning greeting by male' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'i' could be 'a' and 'a' is present in the answer.
'greeting' could be 'hi' (hi is a kind of greeting) and 'hi' is present in the answer.
'male' could be 'm' (common abbreviation) and 'm' is found in the answer.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for maharishi that I've seen before include "Seasoned beef-pork sausage" , "Hindu sage and scholar" , "Teacher of Hindu mysticism" , "Spiritual teacher" , "leading teacher" .)