Potentially hammer frames for delicate, fragile art (6)
I believe the answer is:
defeat
'potentially hammer' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both related to natural events as well as being singular nouns.
Perhaps there's an association between them I don't understand?
I don't understand the remainder of the clue.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for defeat that I've seen before include "Unsuccessful ending" , "best or worst" , "failure" , "annulment" , "Conquest" .)