Iron over mistake and initial trouble or dig up? (6)
I believe the answer is:
ferret
'dig up?' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both to do with contact as well as being verbs in their base form.
Maybe there's an association between them I don't understand?
'iron over mistake and initial trouble' is the wordplay.
'iron' becomes 'fe' (Fe is the chemical symbol for iron).
'over' says the letters should be written in reverse.
'mistake' becomes 'err' ('err' can be a synonym of 'mistake'**).
'and' says to put letters next to each other.
'initial' suggests taking the first letters.
The first letter of 'trouble' is 't'.
'err' in reverse letter order is 'rre'.
'fe'+'rre'+'t'='FERRET'
'or' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for ferret that I've seen before include "Rabbit-unearthing animal" , "Domesticated variety of polecat" , "Animal used to catch rabbits" , "Root around" , "Kind of weasel, a rabbit hunter" .)