Protagonists drug gutless enemies (8)
I believe the answer is:
heroines
'protagonists' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both people as well as being plural nouns.
Perhaps you can see an association between them that I can't see?
'drug gutless enemies' is the wordplay.
'drug' becomes 'heroin' (heroin is a kind of drug).
'gutless' says to hollow out the word (remove centre letters).
'enemies' with its centre removed is 'es'.
'heroin'+'es'='HEROINES'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for heroines that I've seen before include "Female lead characters" , "Women of brave and noble deeds" , "Main female characters in a work of fiction" , "So herein find brave women" , "leading actresses" .)