Provocation on ship not desired (8)
I believe the answer is:
needless
'not desired' is the definition.
The answer and definition are different parts of speech. However, adjectives and past participle verbs can sometimes mean the same thing.
'provocation on ship' is the wordplay.
'provocation' becomes 'needle' (needle can mean to provoke or annoy).
'on' says to put letters next to each other (in a down clue, letters appear on others).
'ship' becomes 'SS' (prefix in ship names eg SS Great Britain).
'needle'+'ss'='NEEDLESS'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for needless that I've seen before include "Otiose" , "for no good reason" , "Unneccessary and unwarranted" , "Superfluous" , "Gratuitous" .)