Hide from royal runner in study (8)
I believe the answer is:
deerskin
'study' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I can't see how one could define the other.
'hide from royal runner in' is the wordplay.
'hide from' becomes 'den' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'royal' becomes 'er' (I've seen this in other clues).
'runner' becomes 'ski' (ski is a kind of runner).
'in' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'er'+'ski'='erski'
'den' placed around 'erski' is 'DEERSKIN'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for deerskin that I've seen before include "Bambi's pelt?" , "Kind of leather" , "Type of leather" , "Hide" .)