Gauge outdated, failing to show power on steamship (6)
I believe the answer is:
assess
'gauge' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'outdated failing to show power on steamship' is the wordplay.
I cannot really see how this works, but
'steamship' could be 'ss' (nautical abbreviation) and 'ss' is located in the answer.
This may be the basis of clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for assess that I've seen before include "Appraise, estimate value" , "Evaluate, estimate" , "(Of a tax) determine the amount to be paid" , "Put a value on" , "Judge the worth of something" .)