Stronghold repelled monster with a European sawn-off? (9)
I believe the answer is:
acropolis
'stronghold' is the definition.
(acropolis is a kind of stronghold)
'repelled monster with a european sawn-off?' is the wordplay.
'repelled' is a reversal indicator.
'monster with' becomes 'orca' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should believe this answer much more).
'a european' becomes 'polish' (Poland is in Europe).
'sawn-off?' means to remove the last letter.
'orca' back-to-front is 'acro'.
'polish' with its last letter taken away is 'polis'.
'acro'+'polis'='ACROPOLIS'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for acropolis that I've seen before include "classical site" , "Upper fortified part of Greek city - Athens's is famous" , "Greek tourist spot" , "Parthenon location" , "Athenian landmark" .)