Miserable looking pine fronted onto compound (4-5)
I believe the answer is:
long-faced
'miserable looking' is the definition.
Both the definition and answer are adjectives. Perhaps there's an association between them I don't understand?
'pine fronted onto compound' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'pine' could be 'long' (to pine for something is to long for it) and 'long' is found within the answer.
'fronted' could be 'faced' ('face' can be a synonym of 'front') and 'faced' is found in the answer.
No letters remain.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for long-faced that I've seen before include "Dismal-looking and down in the mouth" , "Dismal looking" .)