Lowering a cellar (9)
I believe the answer is:
abasement
'lowering' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both acts as well as being singular nouns.
Maybe you can see a link between them that I don't see?
'a cellar' is the wordplay.
'cellar' becomes 'basement' (both can mean the space underneath a house).
'a'+'basement'='ABASEMENT'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for abasement that I've seen before include "Discredit" , "Crawling" , "Humiliation" , "degrading" , "belittling" .)