Oddball left a French garret gutted (7)
I believe the answer is:
lunatic
'oddball' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both people as well as being singular nouns.
Maybe there's a link between them I don't understand?
'left a french garret gutted' is the wordplay.
'left' becomes 'l' (common abbreviation).
'a french' becomes 'un' ('a' in French).
'garret' becomes 'attic' (synonyms).
'gutted' says to hollow out the word (remove centre letters) (to gut something is to remove its insides).
'attic' with its centre removed is 'atic'.
'l'+'un'+'atic'='LUNATIC'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for lunatic that I've seen before include "Imbecile" , "nut" , "Bats" , "Nutcase" , "Deranged" .)