Back in bed holding a medicine bottle (5)
I believe the answer is:
tonic
'a medicine bottle' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both man-made objects as well as being singular nouns.
Perhaps there's a link between them I don't understand?
'back in bed holding' is the wordplay.
'back' says the letters should be written in reverse.
'bed' becomes 'cot' (cot is a type of bed).
'holding' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'in' placed into 'cot' is 'cinot'.
'cinot' in reverse letter order is 'TONIC'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for tonic that I've seen before include "something medicinal" , "that may be mixed with gin" , "shot in the arm" , "Stimulant" , "Invigorating drink" .)