Attempted to shift the dirt out of an eye-piece (5)
I believe the answer is:
tried
'attempted' is the definition.
('try' can be a synonym of 'attempt')
'shift the dirt out of an eye-piece' is the wordplay.
'shift' is an anagram indicator.
'out of' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'an eye-piece' becomes 'e' (this might be a standard abbreviation which I don't know about).
'dirt' with letters rearranged gives 'trid'.
'trid' placed around 'e' is 'TRIED'.
'to' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for tried that I've seen before include "Endeavoured" , "heard in court" , "Put to the test" , "Attempted" , "tasted" .)