Cryptic crossword clue
A cryptic crossword clue is a clue that contains two independent routes to the same answer — a straight definition of the word, and a piece of wordplay that builds the same word out of its letters — dressed up as a sentence that appears to mean something else entirely.
The definition sits at the beginning or the end of the clue, never in the middle, so one of the two ends is always a plain synonym for the answer. Everything else is the wordplay. The sentence you read first, the one that seems to be about a drunk vicar or a broken kettle, is called the surface reading and exists only to mislead.
The wordplay is one of a small set of named devices, and learning the set is most of learning cryptics: anagram, charade, hidden word, homophone, container, reversal, deletion and double definition. The number in brackets after the clue gives the answer's length.
Because the two halves point at the same word independently, a cryptic clue confirms itself. When the definition and the wordplay agree, you can write the answer in with certainty before a single crossing letter arrives — which is why solvers describe the moment as a click rather than a guess.
Daily Mini Crossword — straight definition clues rather than cryptic ones — a gentler place to start.