Broken chain apt to be under stress (2,1,5)
I believe the answer is:
at a pinch
'stress' is the definition.
I know nothing about this answer so I cannot tell whether this works.
'broken chain apt to be under' is the wordplay.
'broken' indicates anagramming the letters.
'to be under' says to put letters next to each other.
'chain'+'apt'='chainapt'
'chainapt' with letters rearranged gives 'AT A PINCH'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for at a pinch that I've seen before include "in a crisis?" , "In case of necessity" , "in case of emergency" , "If absolutely necessary" , "under pressure" .)