Mum stops a sailor boarding container vessel (9)
I believe the answer is:
catamaran
'mum stops' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I cannot understand how they can define each other.
'a sailor boarding container vessel' is the wordplay.
'sailor' becomes 'tamara' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'boarding' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'container' means to remove the middle letters (I've seen 'container of' mean this).
'vessel' becomes 'can' (type of container).
'can' with its middle removed is 'cn'.
'a'+'tamara'='atamara'
'atamara' placed into 'cn' is 'CATAMARAN'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for catamaran that I've seen before include "Twin-hulled sailing boat" , "Boat with two hulls" , "Two-hulled boat" , "Boat with twin, parallel hulls" , "Quarrelsome woman" .)