Number of attendees to drop? Get in without paying (9)
I believe the answer is:
gatecrash
'number' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are verbs in their base form, I cannot understand how one could define the other.
'attendees to drop? get in without paying' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'get in' could be 'crash' (crashing is a kind of getting in) and 'crash' is found in the answer.
The remaining letters 'gate' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't understand.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
'of' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for gatecrash that I've seen before include "join party if not wanted" , "enter without invitation" , "join party unofficially" , "to do so uninvited" , "Try to get in for free" .)