Receiving contrary tip, friend had flutter (9)
I believe the answer is:
palpitate
'flutter' is the definition.
(synonyms)
'receiving contrary tip friend' is the wordplay.
'receiving' is an insertion indicator.
'contrary' indicates anagramming the letters.
'friend' becomes 'palate' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'tip' with letters rearranged gives 'pit'.
'pit' placed inside 'palate' is 'PALPITATE'.
'had' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for palpitate that I've seen before include "Throb rapidly" , "Beat abnormally quickly" , "Rapidly beat" , "flutter" , "quake" .)