Prohibition of make-up by government? Exactly (4-4)
I believe the answer is:
slap-bang
'exactly' is the definition.
Both the answer and definition are adverbs. Maybe you can see an association between them that I can't see?
'prohibition of make-up by government?' is the wordplay.
I cannot really see how this works, but
'prohibition' could be 'ban' (synonyms) and 'ban' is located in the answer.
'government?' could be 'g' (abbreviation for government) and 'g' is present in the answer.
'make-up' could be 'slap' (informal term for make-up) and 'slap' is found within the answer.
No letters remain.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for slap-bang that I've seen before include "right?" , "Suddenly - directly" , "Absolutely (in the middle)" , "All at once - violently" .)