The preserve of the motorist? (7,3)
I believe the answer is:
traffic jam
'the motorist?' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I don't understand how one could define the other.
'the preserve' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'the' could be 't' (the is pronounced as a 't' sound in some dialects) and 't' is found in the answer.
'preserve' could be 'jam' (jam is a kind of preserve) and 'jam' is present in the answer.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
'of' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for traffic jam that I've seen before include "Gridlock" , "Bottleneck on wheels" , "Problem, in a way" , "could make driver late" , "stuck in this" .)