Was significant (8)
I believe the answer is:
mattered
<span class="explanation-format__ClueExplanation">'<span class="explanation-format__original">was significant</span>' is the definition.<br/ ><span class="explanation-format__explanation">(I've seen this before)</span><br/ ><br/ >This is all the clue.<br/ ></span>
(Other definitions for mattered that I've seen before include "Was significant" , "Counted, had significance" , "Was of importance" , "Counted, had weight" .)