Reserve hotel, needing flower in cool environment (8)
I believe the answer is:
icehouse
'cool environment' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I cannot understand how one could define the other.
'reserve hotel needing flower' is the wordplay.
'reserve' becomes 'ice ' (both can mean aloofness).
'hotel' becomes 'h' (phonetic alphabet).
'needing' says to put letters next to each other.
'flower' becomes 'ouse' (Yorkshire river).
'ice'+'h'+'ouse'='ICEHOUSE'
'in' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Another definition for icehouse that I've seen is " Cold store".)