State of hair in dogs outside bars? (9)
I believe the answer is:
curliness
'state of hair' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I don't see how they can define each other.
'dogs outside bars?' is the wordplay.
'dogs' becomes 'curs' (cur can mean a violent dog).
'outside' indicates putting letters inside (some letters go outside others).
'bars?' becomes 'lines' (bar can mean a line).
'curs' going around 'lines' is 'CURLINESS'.
'in' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Another definition for curliness that I've seen is " Wavy appearance".)