Cutting off female with a band (8)
I believe the answer is:
shearing
'cutting' is the definition.
(I know that shearing is a type of cutting)
'off female with a band' is the wordplay.
'off female' becomes 'she' ('she' refers to a woman. I am not sure about the 'off' bit.).
'with' says to put letters next to each other.
'band' becomes 'ring' (a ring is a band of metal).
'she'+'a'+'ring'='SHEARING'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for shearing that I've seen before include "George, the blind pianist" , "Removing sheep's wool" , "Removing wool from sheep" , "Breaking off due to strain" , "George - - (jazz pianist)" .)