A prospective partner lands government contract (7)
I believe the answer is:
abridge
'contract' is the definition.
(synonyms)
'a prospective partner lands government' is the wordplay.
I cannot really see how this works, but
'a' is within the answer.
'partner' could be 'e' and 'e' is found in the answer.
'government' could be 'g' (abbreviation for government) and 'g' is found in the answer.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for abridge that I've seen before include "(US) cattle-pen" , "Abbreviate, contract" , "Shorten (eg, text)" , "Shorten (a literary work)" , "prune?" .)