Topless man given peeled carrot (9)
I believe the answer is:
incentive
'carrot' is the definition.
(carrot and stick)
'topless man given peeled' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'man' could be 'ive' and 'ive' is found in the answer.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for incentive that I've seen before include "Stimulus" , "Motivating payment" , "Something that motivates" , "Inducement" , "Motivational reward" .)