The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 6 plus 4 plus 3 plus 7 letter word BATTEN DOWN THE HATCHES
B
A
T
T
E
N
D
O
W
N
T
H
E
H
A
T
C
H
E
S
More clues leading to the result BATTEN DOWN THE HATCHES
Buddy explains!
The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.