Life is tense after former lover starts to eat numerous chocolate eclairs (9)
I believe the answer is:
existence
'life' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'is tense after former lover starts to eat numerous chocolate eclairs' is the wordplay.
'tense' becomes 't' (abbreviation used in many dictionaries).
'after' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'former lover' becomes 'ex'.
'starts to' suggests taking the first letters.
'numerous chocolate eclairs' becomes 'nce' (this could be a standard abbreviation of which I'm unaware).
The first letter of 'eat' is 'e'.
'is'+'t'='ist'
'ist' put after 'ex' is 'exist'.
'exist'+'e'+'nce'='EXISTENCE'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for existence that I've seen before include "A way of living" , "The business of being" , "Way of life" , "survival" , "State of being" .)