Roman cardinals shirked maintenance abroad, they feel (8)
I believe the answer is:
antennae
'they feel' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'roman cardinals shirked maintenance abroad' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'cardinals' could be 'nn' (an abbreviation for a cardinal direction repeated) and 'nn' is found in the answer.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for antennae that I've seen before include "Transmitting aerials" , "They feel" , "They'll pick up signals" , "Russian wolfhound" , "Sensory appendages on insects" .)