Poles surrounding scattered armies? That's not quite on target (4,4)
I believe the answer is:
near miss
'not quite on target' is the definition.
The definition suggests a singular noun which matches the answer.
'poles surrounding scattered armies?' is the wordplay.
'poles' becomes 'NS' (North and South poles).
'surrounding' is an insertion indicator.
'scattered' indicates anagramming the letters.
'armies' anagrammed gives 'earmis'.
'ns' placed around 'earmis' is 'NEAR MISS'.
'that's' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for near miss that I've seen before include "Close to an accident" , "Just off the target (4,4)" , "not a success" , "narrowly averted disaster" , "reason for alarm or relief on aircraft?" .)
