Outwardly declares a bit of a truce with the stragglers (6)
I believe the answer is:
strays
'stragglers' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are plural nouns, I can't see how one could define the other.
'outwardly declares a bit of a truce with the' is the wordplay.
'outwardly' means one lot of letters goes inside another (some letters go on the outside).
'declares' becomes 'says' (I've seen this in another clue).
'a bit of a truce' becomes 'r' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should believe this answer much more).
'with' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'the' becomes 't' (the is pronounced as a 't' sound in some dialects).
'r' put after 't' is 'tr'.
'says' placed around 'tr' is 'STRAYS'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for strays that I've seen before include "Homeless people's" , "Wanders off the beaten track, gets lost" , "Wanders off course" , "Wanders off the path, gets lost" , "Wanders off the right path" .)