Not expected to be dud in various ways? (6)
I believe the answer is:
sudden
'not expected' is the definition.
The answer and definition are different parts of speech. However, past participle verbs and adjectives sometimes define each other.
'dud in various ways?' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
an anagram of 'dud' is 'udd' which is located in the answer.
'various ways?' could be 'sen' (compass directions) and 'sen' is located in the remaining letters.
This accounts for all the letters.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
'to be' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for sudden that I've seen before include "Done unexpectedly" , "Abrupt, unexpected" , "Occurring unexpectedly quickly" , "'Unexpectedly, without warning (6)'" , "Rapid and unexpected" .)