Nets, feature held up by poles (5)
I believe the answer is:
earns
'nets' is the definition.
(I've seen this in another clue)
'feature held up by poles' is the wordplay.
'feature' becomes 'ear' (ears are a facial feature).
'held up by' means one lot of letters go next to another (in a down clue, some letters hold others up).
'poles' becomes 'NS' (North and South poles).
'ear'+'ns'='EARNS'
(Other definitions for earns that I've seen before include "Deserves for snare" , "ready for work?" , "Gains by work" , "Gains by labour" , "Grosses" .)