Michael took a girl round the academy (7)
I believe the answer is:
faraday
'round the academy' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I cannot see how they can define each other.
'michael took a girl' is the wordplay.
I cannot really see how this works, but
'a' is within the answer.
'girl' could be 'ada' (girl's name) and 'ada' is found within the answer.
The remaining letters 'fry' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for faraday that I've seen before include "English physicist and chemist, d. 1867" , "Michael -, nineteenth century English physicist and chemist" , "unit" , "Man of note" , "Scientist" .)