Lunch box in house on isle — serve retrospectively? (7)
I believe the answer is:
manhood
'lunch box in house' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I don't see how they can define each other.
'on isle serve retrospectively?' is the wordplay.
'on' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'isle' becomes 'man' (the Isle of Man is an example).
'serve retrospectively?' becomes 'hood' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'man' next to 'hood' is 'MANHOOD'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for manhood that I've seen before include "Virility" , "21 [PETER]" , "Adult condition" , "State of adult male" , "What a boy reaches after puberty" .)