Support given to artist losing heart over trial (6)
I believe the answer is:
attest
'support' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'given to artist losing heart over trial' is the wordplay.
'given to' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'losing heart' suggests removing the centre.
'over trial' becomes 'test' ('test' can be a synonym of 'trial'. I am not sure about the 'over' bit.**).
'artist' with its middle removed is 'at'.
'at' put next to 'test' is 'ATTEST'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for attest that I've seen before include "Bear formal witness to, give evidence" , "Vouch for" , "Provide proof of, declare to be true (6)" , "Act as witness" , "Give sworn evidence" .)