Tom's sorrow after missing boat to impending date (8)
I believe the answer is:
tomorrow
'impending date' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both related to time as well as being singular nouns.
Perhaps there's an association between them I don't understand?
'tom's sorrow after missing boat' is the wordplay.
'after missing' is a deletion indicator.
'boat' becomes 'SS' (prefix in ship names eg SS Great Britain).
'toms'+'sorrow'='tomssorrow'
'tomssorrow' with 'ss' taken away is 'TOMORROW'.
'to' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for tomorrow that I've seen before include "They say it never comes" , "It's another day" , "In 24-hours time" , "It's manana in Spain" , "The day that never comes" .)