Round copper and silver vessels for short-term use (7)
I believe the answer is:
stopgap
'short-term use' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both acts as well as being singular nouns.
Perhaps you can see an association between them that I can't see?
'round copper and silver vessels' is the wordplay.
'round' is a reversal indicator.
'copper' becomes 'p'.
'and' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'silver' becomes 'Ag' (Ag is the chemical symbol for silver).
'vessels' becomes 'pots' (pot is a kind of vessel).
'p'+'ag'+'pots'='pagpots'
'pagpots' reversed gives 'STOPGAP'.
'for' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for stopgap that I've seen before include "A temporary or impromptu substitute" , "Temporary measure" , "A temporary substitute or solution" , "caretaker" , "Makeshift" .)