Large, hollow, mostly genuine ancient bones? (5)
I believe the answer is:
leech
'ancient bones?' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I don't see how they can define each other.
'large hollow mostly genuine' is the wordplay.
'hollow' means to remove the middle letters (the word is hollowed out).
'mostly' means to remove the last letter (most but not all of the word).
'genuine' becomes 'echt' (echt means genuine or authentic).
'large' with its middle taken out is 'le'.
'echt' with its last letter taken away is 'ech'.
'le'+'ech'='LEECH'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for leech that I've seen before include "Small worm once used for blood-letting, or a parasitical person" , "Old physician" , "scrounger" , "Blood-sucking worm or parasitic person" , "Medicinal bloodsucker" .)