Is a vet confronted with many a one? (5)
I believe the answer is:
civet
'is a vet' is the definition.
I can't tell whether this defines the answer.
'confronted with many a one?' is the wordplay.
'confronted' becomes 'vet' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'with' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'many' becomes 'c' (C is the Roman numeral for v00).
'a one?' becomes 'I' (Roman numeral).
'c'+'i'='ci'
'vet' after 'ci' is 'CIVET'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for civet that I've seen before include "Catlike animal" , "Cat-like carnivore" , "Cat; scent" , "Smelly nocturnal cat-like mammal with a barred and spotted coat" , "Catlike mammal secreting musk used in perfumes" .)