Mother, you have to dress, eat and run! (6)
I believe the answer is:
nature
'mother you have' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both people as well as being singular nouns.
Perhaps there's an association between them I don't understand?
'dress eat and run' is the wordplay.
'dress' is an anagram indicator (dress or prepare the letters).
'and' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'eat' put after 'run' is 'runeat'.
'runeat' with letters rearranged gives 'NATURE'.
'to' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for nature that I've seen before include "Power underlying the world" , "The external, untouched world" , "Creation - character" , "Tea urn (anag)" , "mother, so-called" .)