Legislation on drink fails to work properly (4,2)
I believe the answer is:
acts up
'fails to work properly' is the definition.
I can't judge whether this definition defines the answer.
'legislation on drink' is the wordplay.
'legislation' becomes 'act' (I've seen this in other clues).
'on' says to put letters next to each other (in a down clue, letters appear on others).
'drink' becomes 'sup' (to sup is to drink).
'act'+'sup'='ACTS UP'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for acts up that I've seen before include "Fails to function properly or behaves badly" , "Behaves in a troublesome way" , "Misbehaves badly" , "Malfunctions" , "Causes trouble or misbehaves" .)