Party held in check, closer? (8)
I believe the answer is:
screwtop
'closer?' is the definition.
I know nothing about this answer so I cannot judge whether it can be defined by this definition.
'party held in check' is the wordplay.
'party' becomes 'crew' (both can mean a group of people).
'held in' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'check' becomes 'stop' (synonyms).
'crew' inserted inside 'stop' is 'SCREWTOP'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for screwtop that I've seen before include "one goes on the bottle" , "Describing a type of bottle" , "cap or lid" , "kind of bottle" , "that closes jar" .)