Why the little blighter is shivering in church? (4,6)
I believe the answer is:
holy terror
'shivering in church?' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I don't understand how one could define the other.
'why the little blighter' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'why' could be 'y' and 'y' is present in the answer.
'the' could be 't' (the is pronounced as a 't' sound in some dialects) and 't' is present in the answer.
'little' could be 'l' (abbreviation for little) and 'l' is present in the answer.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
'is' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for holy terror that I've seen before include "Very tiresome child" , "One who puts the fear of God into one?" , "Troublesome child" .)