Polish fish nets repulsed island (6)
I believe the answer is:
enamel
'polish' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both to do with creating things as well as being verbs in their base form.
Perhaps they are linked in a way I don't understand?
'fish nets repulsed island' is the wordplay.
'fish' becomes 'eel' (eel is a type of fish).
'nets' is an insertion indicator (some letters are contained or netted).
'repulsed' is a reversal indicator.
'island' becomes 'Man' (the Isle of Man is an example).
'man' in reverse letter order is 'nam'.
'eel' placed around 'nam' is 'ENAMEL'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for enamel that I've seen before include "protective coat" , "Coating for a tooth" , "Hard glossy surface" , "Hard, glossy protective coating" , "Hard white substance covering the crown of a tooth" .)