Taught soundly, albeit under a strain (4)
I believe the answer is:
taut
'under a strain' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'taught soundly' is the wordplay.
'soundly' indicates a 'sounds like' (homophone) clue.
'taught' sounds like 'TAUT'.
'albeit' acts as a link.
This may not be correct. It may be part of another bit of the clue.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for taut that I've seen before include "Tightly drawn" , "Tense, stretched tight" , "Stretched, pulled tight" , "Without slack" , "seaworthy" .)