Whale swims around island for a short period (6)
I believe the answer is:
awhile
'for a short period' is the definition.
I can't judge whether this definition defines the answer.
'whale swims around island' is the wordplay.
'swims' indicates anagramming the letters.
'around' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'island' becomes 'i'.
'whale' anagrammed gives 'awhle'.
'awhle' going around 'i' is 'AWHILE'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for awhile that I've seen before include "a brief period" , "For a short time" , "briefly" .)