Unusual occurrence in work of fiction drained Trilby (7)
I believe the answer is:
novelty
'unusual occurrence' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I cannot understand how one could define the other.
'work of fiction drained trilby' is the wordplay.
'work of fiction' becomes 'novel' (I've seen this before).
'drained' suggests removing the centre.
'trilby' with its centre taken out is 'ty'.
'novel'+'ty'='NOVELTY'
'in' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for novelty that I've seen before include "Freshness" , "Middle-Eastern language" , "Inexpensive toy" , "Small, inexpensive, unusual article" , "Originality" .)