Young and clumsy, stoic and extremely hopeful crook (7)
I believe the answer is:
coltish
'young and clumsy' is the definition.
I can't tell whether this defines the answer.
'stoic and extremely hopeful crook' is the wordplay.
'and' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'extremely' suggests removing the centre (only the extremes of the word are used).
'crook' is an anagram indicator (a crooked or broken form of the letters).
'hopeful' with its centre taken out is 'hl'.
'stoic' after 'hl' is 'hlstoic'.
'hlstoic' is an anagram of 'COLTISH'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for coltish that I've seen before include "Awkard like a young horse" , "Frolicsome" .)