Like meal to be successful? (8)
I believe the answer is:
flourish
'like' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are verbs in their base form, I cannot understand how one could define the other.
'meal to be successful?' is the wordplay.
'meal' becomes 'flour' (flour is a kind of meal).
'to be successful?' becomes 'ish' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'flour'+'ish'='FLOURISH'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for flourish that I've seen before include "Grow vigorously and healthily" , "Bloom" , "Showy gesture" , "Prosper - display" , "Fanfare!" .)