The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 7 plus 1 plus 4 letter word WITHOUT A CLUE
I've seen this crossword clue in Financial Times
W
I
T
H
O
U
T
A
C
L
U
E
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.