One way to check payment by cheque (8)
I believe the answer is:
postdate
'cheque' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are verbs in their base form, I can't understand how one could define the other.
'one way to check payment' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'one' could be 'a' (a thing is one thing) and 'a' is present in the answer.
'way' could be 'st' (short for street) and 'st' is found within the answer.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
'by' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for postdate that I've seen before include "Stop immediate use of" , "Occur later in time than" , "Mark with a time still in the future" , "Assign to a later time" , "As potted (anag)" .)