Vocal music around pier curtailed marine displays (7)
I believe the answer is:
aquaria
'marine displays' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both man-made objects as well as being plural nouns.
Perhaps there's a link between them I don't understand?
'vocal music around pier curtailed' is the wordplay.
'vocal music' becomes 'aria' (aria is a kind of vocal music).
'around' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'pier' becomes 'quay' (I've seen this before).
'curtailed' means to remove the last letter.
'quay' with its final letter removed is 'qua'.
'aria' going around 'qua' is 'AQUARIA'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for aquaria that I've seen before include "Tanks or buildings for fish" , "display tanks" , "Transparent fish tanks" .)