The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 4 plus 2 plus 3 plus 5 letter word TURN OF THE SCREW
I've seen this crossword clue in The Daily Telegraph
T
U
R
N
O
F
T
H
E
S
C
R
E
W
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.