Regular breakfast time dipper? (7)
I believe the answer is:
soldier
'dipper?' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both animals as well as being singular nouns.
Perhaps you can see an association between them that I can't see?
'regular breakfast time' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'time' could be 'old' (old is a kind of time) and 'old' is located in the answer.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for soldier that I've seen before include "One enlisted" , "mercenary?" , "Warrior" , "One of man's 22 20 [SEVEN AGES]" , "Member of a fighting force" .)