Eat whimsically, by the sound of it? (6)
I believe the answer is:
ingest
'eat' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'whimsically by the sound of it?' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'the' could be 't' (the is pronounced as a 't' sound in some dialects) and 't' is found within the answer.
'it?' could be 'e' ('e' can mean 'electronic' which is similar to 'IT') and 'e' is present in the answer.
The remaining letters 'ings' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for ingest that I've seen before include "Eat - gin set (anag)" , "Absorb mentally" , "Absorb, assimilate" , "Swallow, absorb" , "Scoff" .)