Umpire to embrace cockney and see return of war victims (8)
I believe the answer is:
refugees
'war victims' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both people as well as being plural nouns.
Maybe you can see a link between them that I don't see?
'umpire to embrace cockney and see return' is the wordplay.
'umpire' becomes 'ref' (short for referee).
'to embrace cockney' becomes ''ug' ('hug' - synonyms - said with a cockney accent, dropping the 'H').
'and' says to put letters next to each other.
'return' shows that the letters should be reversed in order.
'see' written backwards gives 'ees'.
'ref'+'ug'+'ees'='REFUGEES'
'of' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for refugees that I've seen before include "They're forced to flee their country" , "They leave their countries to escape danger" , "Exiles who flee for safety" .)