Took one's time while everything within withered (7)
I believe the answer is:
dallied
'took one's time while' is the definition.
I can't tell whether this defines the answer.
'everything within withered' is the wordplay.
'everything' becomes 'all' (all things).
'within' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'withered' becomes 'died' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'all' put inside 'died' is 'DALLIED'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for dallied that I've seen before include "Idled, loitered" , "moved slowly" , "Held back" , "Idled or flirted" , "Dialled up, having delayed" .)