One who hardly rules? (6)
I believe the answer is:
tyrant
'one who hardly rules?' is the definition.
The answer is a person as well as being a singular noun. This is suggested by the definition.
'one' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'one' could be 'an' (an apple is one apple) and 'an' is located in 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 tyrant that I've seen before include "bully - with 17d" , "Person dictating" , "Despot, dictator" , "Autocrat or despot" , "Authoritarian" .)