Did an avalanche engulf him? (4)
I believe the answer is:
alan
'avalanche engulf him?' is the definition.
The definition suggests a singular noun which matches the answer.
'did an' is the wordplay.
'did' becomes 'al' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'al'+'an'='ALAN'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for alan that I've seen before include "-- Bennett, playwright" , "One of Robin Hood's men was - a Dale" , "- Bennett, English actor, dramatist, writer" , "- Ayckbourn, English playwright" , "-- Sugar, British entrepreneur" .)