Unbalanced painter with no time to plug rubbish (8)
I believe the answer is:
partisan
'unbalanced painter' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both people as well as being singular nouns.
Maybe they are linked in a way I don't understand?
'with no time to plug rubbish' is the wordplay.
'with' indicates putting letters inside.
'no' becomes 'aris' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'time' becomes 't' (abbreviation).
'to plug' means one lot of letters goes inside another (to plug can mean to block a gap within something).
'rubbish' becomes 'pan' (both can mean to criticise heavily).
'aris' placed around 't' is 'artis'.
'artis' inserted inside 'pan' is 'PARTISAN'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for partisan that I've seen before include "In Sparta (anag)" , "type of spear" , "Happening immediately" , "Highly biased" , "Prejudiced towards a particular cause" .)