Individual going to a wake for worker on boat is showing up a rival
I believe the answer is:
one-upmanship
'individual going' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both acts as well as being singular nouns.
Perhaps there's a link between them I don't understand?
'a wake for worker on boat is showing up a rival' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'a' could be 'one' and 'one' is found in the answer.
'worker' could be 'man' (man is a kind of worker) and 'man' is present in the answer.
'boat' could be 'ship' (I've seen this before) and 'ship' is found within the answer.
'up' is found in the answer.
This accounts for all the letters.
This may be the basis of clue (or it may be nonsense).
'to' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for one-upmanship that I've seen before include "Way of feeling superior to another" , "The art of gaining the advantage" , "Art of showing off (Potter)" , "The art of maintaining an advantage over someone" , "(Stephen Potter's) art of keeping a jump ahead of competitor" .)