E.g. perfect way to stop secretary suffering anxiety (4,5)
I believe the answer is:
past tense
'suffering anxiety' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I cannot understand how they can define each other.
'e g perfect way to stop secretary' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'e' is present in the answer.
'perfect' could be 'past' (past perfect is a kind of perfect) and 'past' is found in the answer.
'way' could be 's' (Compass direction - South) and 's' is found within the answer.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for past tense that I've seen before include "Form of verb that indicates time before the present" , "What could be perfect in a lesson of French" , "Grammatical verb form" , "Was perhaps" , "Form of verb showing that the action has already happened" .)