Self-assured close friend has energy for bit of affection (9)
I believe the answer is:
confident
'self-assured' is the definition.
(similar in meaning)
'close friend has energy for bit of affection' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'close' could be 'on' (I've seen this in other clues) and 'on' is found in the answer.
'energy' could be 'e' (physics symbol as in E=mc2) and 'e' is present in the answer.
'bit' could be 'i' (resembles 1, a binary digit or bit) and 'i' is found in the answer.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for confident that I've seen before include "Feeling self-assured" , "Trusting firmly" , "Assured, positive" , "Feeling certain" , "Certain, sure" .)