I'll duck, after warships almost shelled American (9)
I believe the answer is:
armadillo
'shelled american' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I cannot understand how one could define the other.
'i'll duck after warships almost' is the wordplay.
'duck' becomes 'o' (resembles zero - 'duck' in cricket).
'after' says to put letters next to each other.
'warships' becomes 'armada' (I've seen this before).
'almost' means to remove the last letter (most of the word but not all of it).
'armada' with its last letter taken away is 'armad'.
'ill'+'o'='illo'
'illo' after 'armad' is 'ARMADILLO'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for armadillo that I've seen before include "one of the Animals makes appearance" , "Plated burrowing animal" , "bony individual?" , "Bony-plated insectivore" , "Molar laid out for the horny-plated animal" .)