One in leading group savage about Liberal boasting (9)
I believe the answer is:
vainglory
'liberal boasting' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I don't understand how one could define the other.
'one in leading group savage' is the wordplay.
'one' becomes 'i' (Roman numeral).
'in' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'leading group' becomes 'van' (I've seen this before).
'savage' becomes 'glory' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should believe this answer much more).
'i' inserted into 'van' is 'vain'.
'vain'+'glory'='VAINGLORY'
'about' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for vainglory that I've seen before include "Loving Ray (anag) - idle boastfulness" , "Outspoken conceit" , "Extreme vanity or boastfulness" , "Excessive vanity" , "Swagger" .)