The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 2 plus 2 plus 3 plus 4 plus 3 letter word AS IT MAY TURN OUT
I've seen this crossword clue in Independent
A
S
I
T
M
A
Y
T
U
R
N
O
U
T
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.