Minimal growth — number of workers reduced? (4,3)
I believe the answer is:
crew cut
'minimal growth number' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I cannot understand how they can define each other.
'workers reduced?' is the wordplay.
'workers' becomes 'crew' (I've seen this before).
'reduced?' becomes 'cut' ('cut' can be similar in meaning to 'reduced').
'crew'+'cut'='CREW-CUT'
'of' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for crew cut that I've seen before include "Very short hairstyle" , "Style on top" , "Redundancies made in naval" , "Manpower reduced" , "reduced cover above" .)