Functioning at home, manipulating sequence (2,7,5)
I believe the answer is:
in working order
'functioning' is the definition.
Both the answer and definition are adjectives. Maybe you can see an association between them that I don't see?
'home manipulating sequence' is the wordplay.
'home' becomes 'in' ('he's home' can mean 'he's in').
'manipulating' becomes 'working' (working is a kind of manipulating).
'sequence' becomes 'order' (I've seen this before).
'in'+'working'+'order'='IN WORKING ORDER'
'at' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for in working order that I've seen before include "Functioning properly" , "monk who doesn't simply pray?" .)