Pulling through idle chat in middle of night, grabbing number (7)
I believe the answer is:
yanking
'pulling' is the definition.
(yanking is a kind of pulling)
'idle chat in middle of night grabbing number' is the wordplay.
'idle chat' becomes 'yak' (I've seen this in another clue. I am not sure about the 'idle' bit.).
'middle of night' becomes 'G' (middle letter of 'night').
'grabbing' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'number' becomes 'n' (n can represent any number).
'yak'+'in'+'g'='yaking'
'yaking' going around 'n' is 'YANKING'.
'through' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for yanking that I've seen before include "Suddenly pulling" , "Inky nag (anag.)" , "twitching" , "use of powerful tugs" , "Pulling sharply" .)