Shelter one of 40 asleep, hiding straggly beard (9)
I believe the answer is:
windbreak
'shelter one of 40 asleep hiding' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both man-made objects as well as being singular nouns.
Perhaps there's an association between them I don't understand?
'straggly beard' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
an anagram of 'beard' is 'dbrea' which is within the answer.
The remaining letters 'wink' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't understand.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Another definition for windbreak that I've seen is " wall giving shelter".)