Protector of a soft little chap (5)
I believe the answer is:
apron
'protector of a soft little chap' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both man-made objects as well as being singular nouns.
Maybe you can see an association between them that I don't see?
'a soft little chap' is the wordplay.
'soft' becomes 'pp' (musical abbreviation for pianissimo).
'little' means to remove the last letter (the word is not quite complete).
'chap' becomes 'ron' (short for Ronald).
'pp' with its final letter taken off is 'p'.
'a'+'p'+'ron'='APRON'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for apron that I've seen before include "item of protective clothing" , "area in front of aircraft hangar" , "that's used by Oliver!?" , "Protective garment in kitchen" , "Kitchen garment or airfield surface." .)