Support Stokes after hope is finally lost (5)
I believe the answer is:
truss
'support' is the definition.
(type of architectural support)
'stokes after hope is finally lost' is the wordplay.
'stokes' becomes 's' (this could be a standard abbreviation which I don't know about).
'after' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'hope' becomes 'trust' (synonyms).
'is finally lost' means to remove the last letter.
'trust' with its final letter taken away is 'trus'.
's' put after 'trus' is 'TRUSS'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for truss that I've seen before include "advocate of proper punctuation" , "Surgical appliance" , "Corbel, in architecture" , "Tie up tight" , "Support - bundle - cluster" .)