Like an old movie ventriloquist's smart? (6)
I believe the answer is:
grainy
'like' is the definition.
Both the answer and definition are adjectives. Maybe you can see a link between them that I don't see?
'old movie ventriloquist's smart?' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'smart?' could be 'in' (as in fashionable) and 'in' is present in the answer.
'old' could be 'gray' (similar in meaning) and 'gray' is found in the remaining letters.
No letters remain.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
'an' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for grainy that I've seen before include "gravelly" , "(Of photo) having low resolution" , "Old still can be this" , "Granular" , "Coarse" .)