The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 4 plus 2 plus 4 plus 5 letter word ANTS IN ONES PANTS
I've seen this crossword clue in Independent
A
N
T
S
I
N
O
N
E
S
P
A
N
T
S
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.