Old ballet star has newly put on a lot of weight (6)
I believe the answer is:
ashton
'old ballet star' is the definition.
The definition suggests a singular noun which matches the answer.
'has newly put on a lot of weight' is the wordplay.
'newly' is an anagram indicator.
'put on' says to put letters next to each other (some letters go on or after others).
'a lot of weight' becomes 'ton' (unit of weight).
'has' is an anagram of 'ash'.
'ash'+'ton'='ASHTON'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for ashton that I've seen before include "- - -under-Lyne" , "Sir Frederick __ , choreographer, d. 1988" , "Sir Frederick -; Eng. ballet dancer, choreographer" , "Sir Frederick -, English choreographer/dancer" , "Sir Frederick --, British choreographer" .)