Strengthened in a polished way? (5)
I believe the answer is:
waxed
'strengthened in' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both related to change as well as being past participle verbs.
Maybe there's an association between them I don't understand?
'a polished way?' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'a' is present in the answer.
'way?' could be 'w' (Compass direction - West) and 'w' is located in the answer.
The remaining letters 'xed' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't understand.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for waxed that I've seen before include "Increased in phase" , "Became fuller" , "Grew larger" .)