What father brought out during ceremony was hardly unique. (4-8)
I believe the answer is:
mass-produced
'unique' is the definition.
Both the definition and answer are adjectives. Perhaps there's a link between them I don't understand?
'what father brought out during ceremony was hardly' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'ceremony' could be 'mass' (Mass is an example) and 'mass' is present in the answer.
'brought out' could be 'produced' ('produce' can be a synonym of 'bring out') and 'produced' is found in the answer.
This accounts for all the letters.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for mass-produced that I've seen before include "Like most cars" , "Made in industrial quantities" , "Made by automation" .)