Uses the vegetable knife on pears, possibly (5)
I believe the answer is:
pares
'uses the vegetable knife' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both to do with contact as well as being verbs in their -s form.
Perhaps they are linked in a way I don't understand?
'pears possibly' is the wordplay.
'possibly' indicates anagramming the letters.
'pears' anagrammed gives 'PARES'.
'on' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for pares that I've seen before include "Sharpens like pencil" , "Trims, say a pencil" , "Trims by cutting as with pencil" , "Shaves pencil to sharpen" , "Sharpens in spare way" .)