Touch a double-crosser lacking gold (5)
I believe the answer is:
trait
'touch' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both human attributes as well as being singular nouns.
Perhaps there's an association between them I don't understand?
'a double-crosser lacking gold' is the wordplay.
'a double-crosser' becomes 'traitor' ('traitor' can be a synonym of 'double-crosser').
'lacking' suggests deleting specific letters.
'gold' becomes 'or' ('or' is the heraldic name for gold).
'traitor' with 'or' taken out is 'TRAIT'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for trait that I've seen before include "Habit" , "Characteristic or distinguishing quality" , "A characteristic of straitened kind" , "Distinguishing feature" , "Distinguishing characteristic of personality" .)