Makes out tenders have been put out on the quiet (8)
I believe the answer is:
pretends
'makes' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both to do with communicating as well as being verbs in their -s form.
Maybe you can see an association between them that I can't see?
'tenders have been put out on the quiet' is the wordplay.
I cannot really see how this works, but
an anagram of 'tenders' is 'retends' which is present in the answer.
'quiet' could be 'p' (music symbol for 'piano', ie soft or quiet) and 'p' is present in the answer.
This accounts for all the letters.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
'out' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for pretends that I've seen before include "Makes believe" , "Feigns, dissembles" , "poses" , "Plays make-believe" , "Shams" .)