Lark circling sailor caught — a bleak prospect? (10)
I believe the answer is:
antarctica
'a bleak prospect?' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I don't see how one could define the other.
'lark circling sailor caught' is the wordplay.
'lark' becomes 'anica' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'circling' indicates putting letters inside (circling can mean going around or containing).
'sailor' becomes 'tar' (slang term for a sailor).
'caught' becomes 'ct'.
'tar'+'ct'='tarct'
'anica' enclosing 'tarct' is 'ANTARCTICA'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for antarctica that I've seen before include "South polar region" , "continent" , "Southern polar region" , "cold place" .)