Advanced and raced to embrace darling coming back (7)
I believe the answer is:
stepped
'advanced' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both to do with motion as well as being past participle verbs.
Maybe there's an association between them I don't understand?
'raced to embrace darling coming back' is the wordplay.
'raced' becomes 'sped' ('speed' can be a synonym of 'race').
'to embrace' indicates putting letters inside.
'darling' becomes 'pet' (synonyms).
'coming back' says the letters should be written in reverse.
'pet' reversed gives 'tep'.
'sped' going around 'tep' is 'STEPPED'.
'and' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for stepped that I've seen before include "Walked" , "Trodden" , "Arranged in ascending levels" , "Laid out in tiers" .)