Lacking adequate hands, he starts off playing diamonds (5-7)

I believe the answer is:

short-staffed

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'lacking adequate hands' is the definition.
The definition and answer are not the same part of speech.

'he starts off playing diamonds' is the wordplay.
'playing' indicates anagramming the letters.
'diamonds' becomes 'd' (abbreviation for the card suit diamonds).
'he'+'starts'+'off'='hestartsoff'
'hestartsoff' with letters rearranged gives 'shortstaffe'.
'shortstaffe'+'d'='SHORT-STAFFED'

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(Another definition for short-staffed that I've seen is " Deficient in manpower".)

I've seen this clue in The Hindu.

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