They're proverbially late - hammered at the entrance (9)
I believe the answer is:
doornails
'they're proverbially late' is the definition.
The definition suggests an adverb but the answer is not.
'hammered at the entrance' is the wordplay.
'hammered' becomes 'nails' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'at' says to put letters next to each other (I've seen this in other clues).
'the entrance' becomes 'door' (door is a kind of entrance).
'nails' after 'door' is 'DOORNAILS'.
Can you help me to learn more?
I've seen this clue in The Globe and Mail.
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