Late in the day, enlightenment for a clique (6)
I believe the answer is:
sunset
'late in' is the definition.
Both the answer and definition are adjectives. Maybe you can see a link between them that I can't see?
'day enlightenment for a clique' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'day' could be 'sun' (abbreviation for Sunday) and 'sun' is located in the answer.
'clique' could be 'set' (a clique is a social set) and 'set' is present in the answer.
This accounts for all the letters.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
'the' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for sunset that I've seen before include "brilliant decline?" , "Close of day" , "End of the day in terms of light" , "Twilight time" , "Final declining phase (of something)" .)