What noble coats do with reportedly plain sleeves (4,4)
I believe the answer is:
bear arms
'what noble coats do' is the definition.
I don't know anything about this answer so I can't judge whether this works.
'with reportedly plain sleeves' is the wordplay.
'with' says to put letters next to each other.
'reportedly' indicates a 'sounds like' (homophone) clue.
'plain' becomes 'bare' (similar in meaning).
'sleeves' becomes 'arms' ('arm' can be a synonym of 'sleeve').
'bare' sounds like 'bear'.
'bear'+'arms' is 'BEAR ARMS'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for bear arms that I've seen before include "Serve in the forces" , "Carry weapons" , "right for American?" , "Serve as a soldier" , "they may be used in a tight squeeze!" .)