Paddled pathetically, disheartened and wet (6)

I believe the answer is:

swampy

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'wet' is the definition.
('swampy' can be similar in meaning to 'wet')

'paddled pathetically disheartened' is the wordplay.
'paddled' becomes 'swam' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'disheartened' means to remove the middle letters.
'pathetically' with its middle taken out is 'py'.
'swam'+'py'='SWAMPY'

'and' acts as a link.

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(Other definitions for swampy that I've seen before include "Boggy -waterlogged" , "Marshlike" , "gets bogged down?" , "uncultivated and wet" , "Bog-like" .)

I've seen this clue in The Telegraph.

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