Pedestrian unlucky to meet a vehicle coming first (7)
I believe the answer is:
vanilla
'pedestrian' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I can't see how they can define each other.
'unlucky to meet a vehicle coming first' is the wordplay.
'unlucky' becomes 'ill' (similar in meaning).
'to meet' says to put letters next to each other.
'vehicle' becomes 'van' (type of vehicle).
'coming first' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'ill' put next to 'a' is 'illa'.
'illa' after 'van' is 'VANILLA'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for vanilla that I've seen before include "conventional" , "Commonplace - flavouring" , "lacking any special features" , "Subtle flavour pod" , "Orchid, its pod, bean for flavouring" .)