One responsible for early road holdups? (10)
I believe the answer is:
highwayman
'one' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I don't understand how one could define the other.
'early road holdups?' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'road' could be 'highway' (highway is a kind of road) and 'highway' is found within the answer.
The remaining letters 'man' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't understand.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
'responsible for' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Another definition for highwayman that I've seen is " 1 across, for example".)