The little house across the dam (6)
I believe the answer is:
hoover
'the dam' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both man-made objects as well as being singular nouns.
Maybe there's a link between them I don't understand?
'the little house across' is the wordplay.
'the little house' becomes 'ho' (abbreviation for house. I am not sure about the 'little' bit.).
'across' becomes 'over' (synonyms).
'ho'+'over'='HOOVER'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for hoover that I've seen before include "US president, 1929-33" , "J Edgar ...... was FBI boss." , "J Edgar . . . . . . was FBI chief" , "Vacuum cleaner of the old American president" , "Clean with vacuum cleaner" .)