Miss the start of terrible telling off (6)
I believe the answer is:
earful
'miss' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I can't understand how one could define the other.
I cannot understand how the remainder of the clue works.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for earful that I've seen before include "Informally, a strong reprimand of aural content" , "Prolonged and angry reprimand" , "Rocket" , "Reprimand (informal)" , "Large amount of verbal abuse" .)