Old German explorer squashed a spider (8)
I believe the answer is:
huntsman
'spider' is the definition.
(family of giant spiders)
'old german explorer squashed a' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'german' could be 'hun' (Hun is an example) and 'hun' is found within the answer.
'a' could be 'an' and 'an' is found within the answer.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for huntsman that I've seen before include "One riding to hounds" , "One pursuing animals for sport" , "One chasing quarry" , "Who cares for hounds" .)