The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 5 letter word HINGE
I've seen this crossword clue in The Times
H
I
N
G
E
More clues leading to the result HINGE
- There's nothing exceptional holding in this opening feature
- Joint, hot, served by Scandinavian girl
- Joint that’s nothing exceptional inside
- Joint approach in general stores
- It’s central to one’s policy, and nothing else
- Thing engineered to hold sort of joint
- Moveable part in breathing equipment
- Joint – nothing else’s inhaled
- Type of joint involved in stretching elbow
- Going topless, complain there’ll be swinging around here
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "this opening feature" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case this opening feature = hinge.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.
What does HINGE mean?
HINGE noun- A jointed or flexible device that allows the pivoting of a door etc.
- A naturally occurring joint resembling such hardware in form or action, as in the shell of a bivalve.
- A stamp hinge, a folded and gummed paper rectangle for affixing postage stamps in an album.
- A principle, or a point in time, on which subsequent reasonings or events depend.
- The median of the upper or lower half of a batch, sample, or probability distribution.
- One of the four cardinal points, east, west, north, or south.
- To attach by, or equip with a hinge.
- (with on or upon) To depend on something.
- The breaking off of the distal end of a knapped stone flake whose presumed course across the face of the stone core was truncated prematurely, leaving not a feathered distal end but instead the scar of a nearly perpendicular break.
- To bend.