Dashed nonsense written about EU leader (4)
I believe the answer is:
tore
'dashed' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both to do with motion as well as being past participle verbs.
Maybe you can see an association between them that I can't see?
'nonsense written about eu leader' is the wordplay.
'nonsense' becomes 'rot' (I've seen this before).
'written about' says the letters should be written in reverse.
'leader' indicates taking the first letters.
The initial letter of 'eu' is 'e'.
'rot' back-to-front is 'tor'.
'tor'+'e'='TORE'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for tore that I've seen before include "came apart" , "Rote (anag.)" , "Ran" , "Pulled apart with force" , "Ripped; went fast" .)