Superb, quiet retreats are almost devoid of basics for living (9)
I believe the answer is:
acellular
'living' is the definition.
Both the definition and answer are adjectives. Perhaps they are linked in a way I don't understand?
'superb quiet retreats are almost devoid of basics' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'superb' could be 'ace' (ace can informally mean very good) and 'ace' is located in the answer.
'are' could be 'a' (short for 'are', historical unit of measurement) and 'a' is located in the answer.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
'for' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Another definition for acellular that I've seen is " not divided into compartments".)