Bear, having lost weight, treading softly (7)
I believe the answer is:
padding
'bear' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I cannot understand how one could define the other.
'lost weight treading softly' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'softly' could be 'p' (short for piano, musical term for softly) and 'p' is found within the answer.
The remaining letters 'adding' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't understand.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
'having' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Another definition for padding that I've seen is " Soft stuffing".)