Secretive egret regularly hides in island (5)
I believe the answer is:
cagey
'secretive' is the definition.
Both the answer and definition are adjectives. Perhaps you can see a link between them that I don't see?
'egret regularly hides in island' is the wordplay.
'regularly hides' means one should take alternating letters (I've seen 'regularly hiding' mean this).
'in' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'island' becomes 'cay' (I've seen this in another clue).
The alternating letters of 'egret' are 'ge'.
'ge' going inside 'cay' is 'CAGEY'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for cagey that I've seen before include "Keeping things to oneself" , "guarded" , "not open" , "Secretive, cautious about giving information" , "reluctant to give information" .)