Copper grabbed by sozzled Freddie? (7)
I believe the answer is:
mercury
'sozzled freddie?' is the definition.
The definition suggests a singular noun which matches the answer.
'copper grabbed by' is the wordplay.
'copper' becomes 'Cu' (chemical symbol).
'grabbed' is an insertion indicator (inserted letters are grabbed).
'by' becomes 'merry' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'cu' put into 'merry' is 'MERCURY'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for mercury that I've seen before include "In Roman myth, the messenger of the gods" , "Element, symbol Hg" , "Lead singer" , "Planet - rising with temperature?" , "one in distant orbit?" .)