Polish securing place to sleep by Lake Country (8)
I believe the answer is:
scotland
'country' is the definition.
(Scotland is an example)
'polish securing place to sleep by lake' is the wordplay.
'polish' becomes 'sand' (I've seen this before).
'securing' indicates putting letters inside.
'place to sleep' becomes 'cot'.
'by' says to put letters next to each other.
'lake' becomes 'l' (geographical abbreviation).
'cot'+'l'='cotl'
'sand' placed around 'cotl' is 'SCOTLAND'.
(Other definitions for scotland that I've seen before include "Country of the UK" , "The country of strange cold ants" , "12 part of the UK" , "North of the border" , "Semi-autonomous region of the UK" .)