Male gone from dwelling to tend soil (3)
I believe the answer is:
hoe
'soil' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I cannot see how one could define the other.
'male gone from dwelling to tend' is the wordplay.
I cannot really see how this works, but
'from' could be 'o' (I've seen this in other clues) and 'o' is located in the answer.
'male' could be 'he' (he refers to a man) and 'he' is located in the leftover letters.
No letters remain.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for hoe that I've seen before include "Attend to beds" , "Weed" , "Garden tool with a flat blade" , "Weeding implement" , "Purple gem" .)