Reports of monster sightings? Nobody catches Nessie without, that is, getting hammered (8)
I believe the answer is:
nonsense
'nessie without that is getting hammered' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I can't see how one could define the other.
'reports of monster sightings? nobody catches' is the wordplay.
'reports of monster sightings?' becomes 'sens' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should believe this answer much more).
'nobody' becomes 'none' (not a single person).
'catches' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'sens' going into 'none' is 'NONSENSE'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for nonsense that I've seen before include "'Foolishness, silliness (8)'" , "Gobbledegook" , "tripe" , "Words or ideas that don't make sense" , "folly" .)