Mum's high, not at home, in with elephant handlers? (7)
I believe the answer is:
mahouts
'handlers?' is the definition.
(I know this)
'mum's high not at home in' is the wordplay.
'mum's' becomes 'ma's' (ma can mean mother).
'high' becomes 'h' (this could be a standard abbreviation I've not previously seen).
'not at home' becomes 'out' (out can mean away from home).
'in' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'h'+'out'='hout'
'mas' enclosing 'hout' is 'MAHOUTS'.
'with elephant' acts as a link.
I am not very happy about this link. Some or all of it may belong to another bit of the clue.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Another definition for mahouts that I've seen is " Elephant drivers".)