The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 1 plus 4 plus 8 letter word A DEAD GIVEAWAY
A
D
E
A
D
G
I
V
E
A
W
A
Y
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.