Weakest stops working on time, incorporating meagre return (9)
I believe the answer is:
droopiest
'weakest' is the definition.
Both the answer and definition are superlative adjectives. Perhaps there's an association between them I don't understand?
'stops working on time incorporating meagre return' is the wordplay.
'stops working' becomes 'dies' (I've seen this in another clue).
'on time' becomes 't' (abbreviation. I am not sure about the 'on' bit.).
'incorporating' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'meagre' becomes 'poor' (I've seen this before).
'return' is a reversal indicator.
'poor' in reverse letter order is 'roop'.
'dies'+'t'='diest'
'diest' enclosing 'roop' is 'DROOPIEST'.
Can you help me to learn more?