Dope inhaled by vacuously abhorrent setter (5)
I believe the answer is:
agent
'dope inhaled by vacuously abhorrent setter' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both people as well as being singular nouns.
Maybe you can see a link between them that I don't see?
'dope inhaled by vacuously abhorrent' is the wordplay.
'dope' becomes 'gen' (both can mean information).
'inhaled by' is an insertion indicator (inserted letters are inhaled or absorbed).
'vacuously' says to hollow out the word (remove centre letters).
'abhorrent' with its middle taken out is 'at'.
'gen' put into 'at' is 'AGENT'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for agent that I've seen before include "Traveller" , "Actor" , "One may be working" , "One acting on behalf of another" , "Spy; service provider" .)