Shallow outsiders have meal with group creating absorbing material? (9)
I believe the answer is:
sweatband
'absorbing material?' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both man-made objects as well as being singular nouns.
Maybe there's an association between them I don't understand?
'shallow outsiders have meal with group' is the wordplay.
'outsiders' means to remove the middle letters (only the letters on the outside of the word remain).
'have meal with' becomes 'eat' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should believe this answer much more).
'group' becomes 'band' (band can mean a group of people).
'shallow' with its centre removed is 'sw'.
'sw'+'eat'+'band'='SWEATBAND'
'creating' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for sweatband that I've seen before include "Feature of John McEnroe's playing wardrobe" , "Part of hat" , "Part of outfit" , "Strip of fabric to absorb perspiration" .)