Lady upset about corruption bringing Independent in smartly (8)
I believe the answer is:
adroitly
'smartly' is the definition.
Both the answer and definition are adverbs. Maybe there's a link between them I don't understand?
'lady upset about corruption bringing independent' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'about' could be 'a' (abbreviation in Chambers) and 'a' is present in the answer.
'independent' could be 'i' and 'i' is found within the answer.
'corruption' could be 'rot' (rot can mean corruption or decay) and 'rot' is found in the remaining letters.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
'in' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for adroitly that I've seen before include "Dexterously" , "in masterly fashion" , "With skill and subtlety" , "With skill - dilatory (anag)" , "Cleverly, skilfully" .)