Appeal touchingly (5)
I believe the answer is:
cadge
'appeal' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are verbs in their base form, I cannot understand how one could define the other.
I cannot understand how the rest of the clue works.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for cadge that I've seen before include "Get money by sponging" , "Scrounge, sponge" , "Sponge (money, etc)" , "Scrounge (money, etc)" , "freeload" .)