### Clue: Acts of cleaning up the "sharp end" with unusual dilatoriness (15)
### Answer: BOWDLERISATION 
 ### Explanation: Definition: Acts of cleaning up
  BOW(*the* "*sharp end*", is the business end of things, where activity takes place; for seacraft, it's the bow, which also happens to be *sharp*,pointed, vs. the stern, though bows of bigger ships are nowadays rounded as well, to reduce drag) + anagram(*unusual*) of *DILATORINESS*
Defn:  *Acts of cleaning up*, aka censorship, of literature.  Named after Thomas Bowdler, English editor of the late 18C/early 19C who published a special family edition Shakespeare's work which had been *cleaned up*,expurgated of "indecent" passages.  Not to be confused with its opposite, "bawdlerisation", from "bawdy"….Nah, I just made that up!