Like some old houses where two little boys live with socialist behind hospital (4-8)
I believe the answer is:
half-timbered
'like some old' is the definition.
Both the answer and definition are adjectives. Maybe there's a link between them I don't understand?
'houses where two little boys live with socialist behind hospital' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'little' could be 'l' (abbreviation for little) and 'l' is located in the answer.
'live' could be 'be' (synonyms) and 'be' is present in the answer.
'socialist' could be 'red' (red can informally mean a socialist) and 'red' is found within the answer.
'behind' could be 'aft' (aft means towards or at the end of a ship) and 'aft' is found in the remaining letters.
'hospital' could be 'h' (abbreviation for hospital on maps) and 'h' is present in the answer.
The remaining letters 'im' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for half-timbered that I've seen before include "Like many old buildings" , "Tudor houses were often so" .)