Nibbled food with European in shabby surroundings? (4-5)
I believe the answer is:
worm-eaten
'nibbled' is the definition.
(nibbled by worms)
'food with european in shabby surroundings?' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'food' could be 'e' (E is an example) and 'e' is found in the answer.
'with' could be 'w' (abbreviation) and 'w' is located in the answer.
'european' could be 'e' (abbreviation e.g. EU) and 'e' is found in the answer.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for worm-eaten that I've seen before include "Shabby" , "Decrepit" .)