Illustration on the outside with name, swinging regularly? (3,4)
I believe the answer is:
inn sign
'illustration on the outside with name swinging regularly?' is the definition.
I know nothing about this answer so I cannot tell whether it can be defined by this definition.
'illustration on the outside with name swinging regularly?' is the wordplay.
'on the outside' says to hollow out the word (remove centre letters).
'with' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'name' becomes 'n' (common abbreviation e.g. on forms).
'regularly?' indicates alternate letters (regularly take one letter, leave next etc.).
'illustration' with its centre taken out is 'in'.
The alternate letters of 'swinging' are 'sign'.
'in'+'n'+'sign'='INN-SIGN'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for inn sign that I've seen before include "Board showing name of pub" , ""The Bull" perhaps" , "One usually outside pub" , "Pub name carrier" , "one shows identity at pub door" .)