Make light of mite and saw he crumbled (9)
I believe the answer is:
whitewash
'make light' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both acts as well as being singular nouns.
Perhaps you can see an association between them that I can't see?
'mite and saw he crumbled' is the wordplay.
'mite' becomes 'whit' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'and' says to put letters next to each other.
'crumbled' indicates anagramming the letters.
'saw'+'he'='sawhe'
'sawhe' with letters rearranged gives 'ewash'.
'whit'+'ewash'='WHITEWASH'
'of' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for whitewash that I've seen before include "Gloss over mistakes or faults, using wall or celing paint? (9)" , "Gloss over, suppress" , "Substance applied to a wall - total defeat" , "Attempt to conceal bad news" , "Lime solution; cover up" .)