Small firm working to absorb a measure of inflation which can be lethal (8)
I believe the answer is:
scorpion
'small firm working to absorb a measure of inflation which can be lethal' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I don't understand how they can define each other.
'small firm working to absorb a measure of inflation' is the wordplay.
'small' becomes 's' (abbreviation - e.g. clothes size).
'firm' becomes 'co' (a firm is a company).
'working' becomes 'on' (e.g. a machine is working or on).
'to absorb' indicates putting letters inside.
'a measure of inflation' becomes 'RPI' (retail price index).
'co'+'on'='coon'
'coon' going around 'rpi' is 'corpion'.
's'+'corpion'='SCORPION'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for scorpion that I've seen before include "Venemous creature" , "Poisonous creature" , "Kind of spider with pincers and stinging tail" , "Poisonous arachnid" , "Arachnid with venomous sting" .)