Small child taking almost everything off (5)
I believe the answer is:
total
'off' is the definition.
Both the answer and definition are adjectives. Maybe you can see an association between them that I don't see?
'small child taking almost everything' is the wordplay.
'small child' becomes 'tot' (tot can mean a baby or toddler).
'taking' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'almost' means to remove the last letter (almost the whole word is kept).
'everything' becomes 'all' (all things).
'all' with its last letter taken off is 'al'.
'tot'+'al'='TOTAL'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for total that I've seen before include "Aggregate, sum" , "Including all" , "energy provider" , "Entirety" , "Sum, aggregation" .)