Machismo of island hunter avoiding nothing (9)
I believe the answer is:
manliness
'machismo' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both human attributes as well as being singular nouns.
Perhaps there's an association between them I don't understand?
'island hunter avoiding nothing' is the wordplay.
'island' becomes 'man' (the Isle of Man is an example).
'hunter' becomes 'lioness' (predatory animal).
'avoiding' indicates named letters should be taken away.
'nothing' becomes 'O' (looks like zero - 0).
'lioness' with 'o' taken out is 'liness'.
'man'+'liness'='MANLINESS'
'of' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for manliness that I've seen before include "strength, stereotypically" , "Macho quality" .)