Impudence, playing notes that may be surgically removed (9)
I believe the answer is:
gallstone
'impudence playing notes that may be surgically removed' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I cannot understand how one could define the other.
'impudence playing notes' is the wordplay.
'impudence' becomes 'gall' (synonyms).
'playing' is an anagram indicator.
'notes' is an anagram of 'stone'.
'gall'+'stone'='GALLSTONE'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for gallstone that I've seen before include "Small hard secretion formed in the body" , "Concretion of cholesterol, lime salts, etc" , "Let Anglos suffer with small hard mass in body" , "It's removed in hospital" , "Problem for bile ducts" .)