Muses maybe occasionally during Indian tea (4)
I believe the answer is:
nine
'indian tea' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I can't understand how one could define the other.
'muses maybe occasionally during' is the wordplay.
I cannot really see how this works, but
'during' could be 'in' (I've seen this in other clues) and 'in' is found in the answer.
The remaining letters 'ne' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for nine that I've seen before include "One over the eight" , "Square root of 81" , "It's dialled three times in an emergency" , "Short time for a wonder" , "A perfect square" .)