State tries waiving reforms (4,8)
I believe the answer is:
west virginia
'state' is the definition.
(West Virginia is an example)
'tries waiving reforms' is the wordplay.
'reforms' indicates anagramming the letters.
'tries'+'waiving'='trieswaiving'
'trieswaiving' anagrammed gives 'WEST VIRGINIA'.
(Other definitions for west virginia that I've seen before include "State of eastern US" , "US state, capital Charleston" , "US state, forming part of 5 until 1863" , "Eastern American state" .)