The majority of shops closing during a test (4)
I believe the answer is:
most
'the majority' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'shops closing during a test' is the wordplay.
'shops closing' becomes 's' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'during' indicates putting letters inside.
'a test' becomes 'mot'.
's' inserted within 'mot' is 'MOST'.
'of' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for most that I've seen before include "Greatest in amount or degree" , "Kind of commercial pact where two countries agree to treat each other as well as any other" , "Nearly all, majority" , "Almost all" , "Extremely, very" .)