She cut the first man short (3)
I believe the answer is:
ada
'she cut' is the definition.
The definition suggests a singular noun which matches the answer.
'first man short' is the wordplay.
'first man' becomes 'adam' (first man in the Bible).
'short' means to remove the last letter.
'adam' with its last letter taken away is 'ADA'.
'the' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for ada that I've seen before include "girl?" , "Novel by Vladimir Nabokov" , "Woman" , "Palindromic girl's name" , "Computer language; girl's name" .)