Use external company to expose a gent's confidant (9)
I believe the answer is:
outsource
'use external company' is the definition.
I don't know anything about this answer so I can't tell whether it can be defined by this definition.
'expose a gent's confidant' is the wordplay.
'expose' becomes 'out' (outing is a kind of exposing).
'a gent's confidant' becomes 'source' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'out'+'source'='OUTSOURCE'
'to' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for outsource that I've seen before include "Look elsewhere" , "for umpire?" , "Use contractors" , "Contract (work) to an external supplier" , "Obtain goods from external supplier" .)