Old lady survived feigned illness (10)

I believe the answer is:

malingered

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'feigned illness' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are past participle verbs, I don't understand how they can define each other.

'old lady survived' is the wordplay.
'old lady' becomes 'ma' (both can informally mean mother).
'survived' becomes 'lingered' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'ma'+'lingered'='MALINGERED'

Can you help me to learn more?

(Another definition for malingered that I've seen is " skived off".)

I've seen this clue in The Telegraph.

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