Rejection upset boy -- is girl hiding? (9)
I believe the answer is:
dismissal
'girl hiding?' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both acts as well as being singular nouns.
Perhaps there's an association between them I don't understand?
'rejection upset boy' is the wordplay.
'rejection upset' becomes 'dismiss' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'boy' becomes 'al'.
'dismiss'+'al'='DISMISSAL'
'is' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for dismissal that I've seen before include "Release - marching orders!" , "ending" , "sack" , "job loss?" , "sending off" .)