Peckham's outsiders drinking highball on vacation, say it's cool (6)
I believe the answer is:
phlegm
'cool' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I don't understand how one could define the other.
'peckham's outsiders drinking highball on vacation say' is the wordplay.
'outsiders' means to remove the middle letters (only the letters on the outside of the word remain).
'drinking' is an insertion indicator (inserted letters are consumed or drunk).
'on vacation' suggests removing the centre.
'say' becomes 'eg' (short for 'exempli gratia', 'for example' in Latin).
'peckham' with its middle taken out is 'pm'.
'highball' with its middle removed is 'hl'.
'hl'+'eg'='hleg'
'pm' going around 'hleg' is 'PHLEGM'.
'it's' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for phlegm that I've seen before include "Impassivity" , "Composure" , "Secretion from throat" , "Imperturbable stolidity" , "Calm temperament" .)