Susceptible to condition? Take a tablet first and four by start of evening (9)
I believe the answer is:
formative
'susceptible' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'first and four by start of evening' is the wordplay.
'first and' becomes 'format' (I can't justify this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'four' becomes 'iv' (roman numeral).
'by' says to put letters next to each other.
'start of' indicates taking the first letters.
The initial letter of 'evening' is 'e'.
'format'+'iv'+'e'='FORMATIVE'
'to condition? take a tablet' is the link.
I am not very happy about this link. Some or all of it may belong to another bit of the clue.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for formative that I've seen before include "Moulding" , "Having great influence on development" .)