Male twins that may be soundly beaten? (3-3)
I believe the answer is:
tom-tom
'male twins that may be soundly beaten?' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I can't understand how one could define the other.
'male twins' is the wordplay.
'male' becomes 'tom' (tom can mean a male cat).
'twins' becomes 'tom' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'tom'+'tom'='TOM-TOM'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for tom-tom that I've seen before include "Small drum beaten with hands" , "Type of native American drum" , "Medium-sized drum" , "Repetitive cat on the drum" , "African drum on the double?" .)