Force directed towards Earth pause when told (6)
I believe the answer is:
weight
'force' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'pause when told' is the wordplay.
'pause' becomes 'wait' (wait is a kind of pause).
'when told' shows a homophone (sound like).
'wait' sounds like 'WEIGHT'.
'directed towards earth' is the link.
I am not very happy about this link. Some or all of it may be part of another bit of the clue.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for weight that I've seen before include "Feeling of oppression; heaviness" , "Vertical force as a result of gravity" , "Relative heaviness" , "Importance, oppressive force" , "gives a sense of oppression" .)