In the afternoon, ultimately come across one smoking sausage, maybe (3,4)
I believe the answer is:
pet name
'in' is the definition.
Both the answer and definition are singular nouns.
Maybe there's an association between them I don't understand?
'afternoon ultimately come across one smoking sausage maybe' is the wordplay.
'afternoon' becomes 'pm'.
'ultimately' indicates one should take the final letters.
'across' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'one smoking sausage maybe' becomes 'etna' (I can't justify this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
The final letter of 'come' is 'e'.
'pm'+'e'='pme'
'pme' going around 'etna' is 'PET NAME'.
'the' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for pet name that I've seen before include "Fond appellation" , "what one gets from cat-callers?" , "Term of endearment" , "Familiar appellation" .)