Persuade alien to visit Earth (3,5)
I believe the answer is:
get round
'persuade' is the definition.
Both the answer and definition are verbs in their base form.
Maybe there's a link between them I don't understand?
'alien to visit earth' is the wordplay.
'alien' becomes 'et' (extra terrestrial).
'to visit' means one lot of letters goes inside another (inserted letters visit others).
'earth' becomes 'ground' (synonyms).
'et' put within 'ground' is 'GET ROUND'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for get round that I've seen before include "Evade (a restriction)" , "Coax to become circular?" , "Influence in one's favour, coax (3,5)." , "Avoid" , "Influence in one's favour or circumvent" .)