More exuberant relative eclipsed by Dallas oilman (8)
I believe the answer is:
jauntier
'more exuberant' is the definition.
Both the definition and answer are comparative adjectives. Maybe there's a link between them I don't understand?
'relative eclipsed by dallas oilman' is the wordplay.
'relative' becomes 'auntie' (auntie is a kind of relative).
'eclipsed by' is an insertion indicator.
'dallas oilman' becomes 'jr' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'auntie' going inside 'jr' is 'JAUNTIER'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Another definition for jauntier that I've seen is " with increased self-confidence".)