Ladies and gents associated with city in a vague way (7)
I believe the answer is:
loosely
'in a vague way' is the definition.
Both the definition and answer are adverbs. Perhaps they are linked in a way I don't understand?
'ladies and gents associated with city' is the wordplay.
'ladies and gents' becomes 'loos'.
'associated with' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'city' becomes 'ely' (I've seen this before).
'loos'+'ely'='LOOSELY'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for loosely that I've seen before include "Vaguely" , "without restraint" , "more or less" , "Generally" , "Not exactly" .)