After drinks journalist tripped (6)
I believe the answer is:
lapsed
'tripped' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both to do with motion as well as being past participle verbs.
Maybe you can see a link between them that I don't see?
'after drinks journalist' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'drinks' could be 'laps' (lapping is a kind of drinking) and 'laps' is located in the answer.
'journalist' could be 'ed' (short for editor) and 'ed' is found within the answer.
This accounts for all the letters.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for lapsed that I've seen before include "Ceased to practise faith" , "Became invalid through disuse" , "Pleads (anag)" , "No longer active or practising" , "Became invalid (through lack of renewal)" .)