Religious lecturer securing taxi to drop book off (9)
I believe the answer is:
dominican
'off' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are adjectives, I cannot understand how one could define the other.
'religious lecturer securing taxi to drop book' is the wordplay.
'religious lecturer' becomes 'don' (I've seen this before. I am not sure about the 'religious' bit.**).
'securing' indicates putting letters inside.
'taxi' becomes 'minicab' (I've seen this before).
'to drop' suggests deleting specific letters.
'book' becomes 'b'.
'minicab' with 'b' taken away is 'minica'.
'don' placed around 'minica' is 'DOMINICAN'.
(Other definitions for dominican that I've seen before include "sister of Caribbean descent" , "One working in order" , "West Indian" , "See sister" , "- - Republic, West Indies" .)