Believes Italy has silver in pits (8)
I believe the answer is:
imagines
'believes' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both related to thinking as well as being verbs in their -s form.
Perhaps there's a link between them I don't understand?
'italy has silver in pits' is the wordplay.
'italy' becomes 'i'.
'has' says to put letters next to each other.
'silver' becomes 'Ag' (Ag is the chemical symbol for silver).
'in' indicates putting letters inside.
'pits' becomes 'mines' (I've seen this before).
'ag' placed into 'mines' is 'magines'.
'i'+'magines'='IMAGINES'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for imagines that I've seen before include "Conjures up in the mind" , "Dreams of" , "Fancies" , "Supposes" , "Formed a mental image of something not present" .)