Inquiring into pound invested in public showing by clique (9)
I believe the answer is:
exploring
'inquiring' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both related to thinking as well as being present participle verbs.
Maybe there's an association between them I don't understand?
'pound invested in public showing by clique' is the wordplay.
'pound' becomes 'L' (the pound sign is based on an L).
'invested in' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'public showing' becomes 'expo' (I've seen this before).
'by' says to put letters next to each other.
'clique' becomes 'ring' (I've seen this in other clues).
'l' placed into 'expo' is 'explo'.
'explo'+'ring'='EXPLORING'
'into' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for exploring that I've seen before include "Travelling in unknown territory" , "Investigating (an area)" , "Searching unknown territory" , "Travelling in unknown territories" , "Searching or travelling for discovery" .)