Jerk bagging duck, with another fowl making brace (7)
I believe the answer is:
toughen
'brace' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'jerk bagging duck with another fowl' is the wordplay.
'jerk' becomes 'tug' ('tug' can be a synonym of 'jerk').
'bagging' is an insertion indicator (I've seen this in other clues).
'duck' becomes 'o'.
'with' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'another fowl' becomes 'hen' (hen is a kind of fowl. I am not sure about the 'another' bit.**).
'tug' placed around 'o' is 'toug'.
'toug'+'hen'='TOUGHEN'
'making' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for toughen that I've seen before include "Make more hardy or durable" , "Fortify" , "Make more robust" , "Add resistance to" , "Make strong and durable" .)