Interceded to capture tense thought (9)
I believe the answer is:
meditated
'thought' is the definition.
(meditating is a kind of thinking)
'interceded to capture tense' is the wordplay.
'interceded' becomes 'mediated' ('mediate' can be a synonym of 'intercede').
'to capture' is an insertion indicator.
'tense' becomes 't' (grammatical abbreviation).
'mediated' enclosing 't' is 'MEDITATED'.
(Other definitions for meditated that I've seen before include "pondered" , "Engaged in spiritual contemplation" , "Engaged in religious contemplation" , "thought" .)