Are the residents wearing riding gear? (7)
I believe the answer is:
inhabit
'gear?' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are verbs in their base form, I don't see how one could define the other.
'are the residents wearing riding' is the wordplay.
'are the residents' becomes 'habit' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should believe this answer much more).
'wearing' becomes 'in' (in jeans or in a dress).
'riding' means one lot of letters go next to another (in a down clue, some letters go on top of others).
'habit' after 'in' is 'INHABIT'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for inhabit that I've seen before include "Live in, occupy" , "people" , "Dwell in" , "Occupy (dwelling)" , "Occupy - settle" .)