Swear after hounds get early start (5)
I believe the answer is:
curse
'swear' is the definition.
(I know that swear can be written as curse)
'hounds get early start' is the wordplay.
'hounds' becomes 'cure' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'get' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'early' suggests taking the first letters (I've seen 'earliest of' mean this).
The first letter of 'start' is 's'.
'cure' going around 's' is 'CURSE'.
'after' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for curse that I've seen before include "Trouble" , "Excommunication" , "Wish harm on" , "Malediction or expletive" , "Profane or obscene expression" .)