In love’s absence does couple hit rock bottom? (7)
I believe the answer is:
despair
'hit rock bottom?' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'in love's absence does couple' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'couple' could be 'pair' (synonyms) and 'pair' is found within the answer.
The remaining letters 'des' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for despair that I've seen before include "A spider (anag.)" , "Hopeless" , "Give up hope" , "Praised (anag) - lose hope" , "Lose or lack hope" .)