Moralising, posted promissory notes around hospital department (11)
I believe the answer is:
sententious
'moralising posted promissory notes around hospital department' is the definition.
I can't tell whether this definition defines the answer.
'posted promissory notes around hospital department' is the wordplay.
'posted' becomes 'sent' ('send' can be a synonym of 'post').
'promissory notes' becomes 'ious' (IOU is an example).
'around' is an insertion indicator.
'hospital department' becomes 'ent'.
'sent'+'ious'='sentious'
'sentious' going around 'ent' is 'SENTENTIOUS'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for sententious that I've seen before include "Given to pompous moralising" , "Pompously moralistic" , "Pompously moralising" .)