Suffered in terrible distress (4)
I believe the answer is:
bled
'suffered' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both related to bodily activities as well as being past participle verbs.
Maybe you can see a link between them that I don't see?
'in terrible distress' is the wordplay.
'in' indicates a hidden word.
'BLED' is hidden in the letters of 'terrible distress'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for bled that I've seen before include "Seeped (into an adjoining colour)" , "Haemorrhaged" , "Showed effects of injury" , "Extracted blood as treatment" , "Lost blood" .)