Illegally record detective meeting informant beside base (6)
I believe the answer is:
pirate
'illegally record' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both man-made objects as well as being singular nouns.
Maybe there's an association between them I don't understand?
'detective meeting informant beside base' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'detective' could be 'pi' (private investigator) and 'pi' is found in the answer.
'informant' could be 'rat' (rat is a kind of informant) and 'rat' is found within the answer.
'base' could be 'e' (mathematical symbol) and 'e' is found within the answer.
This accounts for all the letters.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for pirate that I've seen before include "Sea raider" , "fake" , "Buccaneer, sea robber" , "Cornishman maybe" , "Illegal" .)