Was set terribly hard work here? (9)
I believe the answer is:
sweatshop
'here?' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I cannot see how they can define each other.
'was set terribly hard work' is the wordplay.
'terribly' indicates anagramming the letters.
'hard' becomes 'h' (abbreviation used in pencil classifications).
'work' becomes 'op' (short for opus).
'was'+'set'='wasset'
'wasset' anagrammed gives 'sweats'.
'sweats'+'h'+'op'='SWEATSHOP'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for sweatshop that I've seen before include "Factory (derog.)" , "Where people work long hours for low wages" , "where workers may be exploited" , "Exploitative factory" , "Factory exploiting workers" .)