Pastors and priest including a male in discards (9)
I believe the answer is:
shepherds
'pastors' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both people as well as being plural nouns.
Maybe there's a link between them I don't understand?
'priest including a male in discards' is the wordplay.
'priest' becomes 'pr'.
'including' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'a male' becomes 'he' (he refers to a man).
'in' indicates putting letters inside.
'discards' becomes 'sheds' (I've seen this in another clue).
'pr' going around 'he' is 'pher'.
'pher' placed within 'sheds' is 'SHEPHERDS'.
'and' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for shepherds that I've seen before include "They look after sheep" , "feature of 21/23 [NATIVITY SCENE]" .)