Honour a rebel leader admitting heightened depression (8)
I believe the answer is:
accolade
'honour' is the definition.
(synonyms)
'a rebel leader admitting heightened depression' is the wordplay.
'rebel leader' becomes 'cade' (as in Jack Cade's Rebellion).
'admitting' indicates putting letters inside (admit can mean to welcome in or accept).
'heightened depression' becomes 'col' (I can't justify this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'cade' enclosing 'col' is 'ccolade'.
'a'+'ccolade'='ACCOLADE'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for accolade that I've seen before include "Praise publicly given" , "Praise, acclaim" , "High praise" , "Acclaim; mark of honour" , "Approval, acclaim" .)