In Paradise Lost, say, pressure on pair oddly missing a piece of fruit (7)
I believe the answer is:
epicarp
'in paradise lost say pressure' is the definition.
I can't judge whether this definition defines the answer.
'on pair oddly missing a piece of fruit' is the wordplay.
'on' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'oddly missing' indicates alternate letters (letters in odd-numbered positions removed).
'a piece' becomes 'p' (abbreviation for Pawn).
'of fruit' becomes 'epic' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
The alternate letters of 'pair' are 'ar'.
'ar'+'p'='arp'
'arp' after 'epic' is 'EPICARP'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for epicarp that I've seen before include "Part of fruit" , "Bit of fruit" , "Skin" .)