Turn out old pirate in the middle of the battle (9)
I believe the answer is:
extrovert
'turn out' is the definition.
Both the answer and definition are adjectives. Maybe there's a link between them I don't understand?
'old pirate in the middle of the battle' is the wordplay.
'old' becomes 'ex' (prefix meaning former or onetime).
'pirate' becomes 'rover' (I've seen this in another clue).
'in the' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'middle of the battle' becomes 'tt' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'rover' inserted inside 'tt' is 'trovert'.
'ex'+'trovert'='EXTROVERT'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for extrovert that I've seen before include "Person who is more interested in the world than the inner self" , "Sociable, outgoing person" , "A lively sociable person, always up front" , "Outgoing rather than inward-looking" , "he's turned out" .)