Show one's worthy to leave the army? (7)
I believe the answer is:
deserve
'show' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are verbs in their base form, I cannot understand how they can define each other.
I cannot understand how the rest of the clue works.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for deserve that I've seen before include "Severed (anag)" , "Be entitled to" , "rate" , "Show one is worthy" , "Warrant" .)