Safe king avoids appearance in massacre (8)
I believe the answer is:
peterloo
'massacre' is the definition.
I don't know anything about this answer so I cannot judge whether it can be defined by this definition.
'safe king avoids appearance' is the wordplay.
'safe' becomes 'peter' (slang term for a safe).
'king' becomes 'K' (chess abbreviation).
'avoids' is a deletion indicator.
'appearance' becomes 'look' (look is a kind of appearance).
'look' with 'k' taken away is 'loo'.
'peter'+'loo'='PETERLOO'
'in' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for peterloo that I've seen before include "Name given to Manchester massacre" , "massacre, say" , "So-called massacre" , "Site of 1819 Manchester massacre" , "1819 Manchester massacre scene" .)