Young animal had to enter cocoon (6)

I believe the answer is:

pupate

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'enter cocoon' is the definition.
I can't judge whether this defines the answer.

'young animal had' is the wordplay.
'young animal' becomes 'pup' (I've seen this before).
'had' becomes 'ate' ('have' can mean 'eat').
'pup'+'ate'='PUPATE'

'to' acts as a link.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for pupate that I've seen before include "Change into a chrysalis" , "Become a chrysalis" , "To develop biologically" , "Turn into a chrysalis" , "What insects do" .)

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