In extremes of poverty, being given a loan means a lot (6)
I believe the answer is:
plenty
'a lot' is the definition.
(I know that lot can be written as plenty)
'in extremes of poverty being given a loan' is the wordplay.
'in' indicates putting letters inside.
'extremes of' means to remove the middle letters (only the letters at the extremes of the word).
'being given a loan' becomes 'lent' (I can't justify this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'poverty' with its centre taken out is 'py'.
'py' enclosing 'lent' is 'PLENTY'.
'means' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for plenty that I've seen before include "Copiousness" , "Amplitude or abundance" , "Many" , "More than enough" , "A great deal" .)