Sophisticate -- fellow on brink of victory one's denied? (3-5-4)
I believe the answer is:
man about town
'sophisticate' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'fellow on brink of victory one's denied?' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'fellow' could be 'man' (fellow can mean a man) and 'man' is present in the answer.
'on' could be 'to' and 'to' is present in the answer.
'of' could be 'o' and 'o' is found within the answer.
'one' could be 'a' (a thing is one thing) and 'a' is found in the answer.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for man about town that I've seen before include "Fashionable and sociable chap" , "Fashionable male socialite" , "Dandy" , "City gent" , "Sophisticated socialite" .)