Ruffians getting the Yanks out of breath? (5)
I believe the answer is:
thugs
'ruffians' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'the yanks out of breath?' is the wordplay.
'the yanks' becomes 'tugs' (I've seen this before).
'out' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'of breath?' becomes 'h' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'tugs' placed around 'h' is 'THUGS'.
'getting' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Another definition for thugs that I've seen is " Ruffians".)