Attended to skirts to deter trouble (10)
I believe the answer is:
ministered
'attended' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both to do with social activities as well as being past participle verbs.
Maybe you can see an association between them that I can't see?
'skirts to deter trouble' is the wordplay.
'skirts' becomes 'minis' (mini skirts).
'trouble' is an anagram indicator.
'deter' anagrammed gives 'tered'.
'minis'+'tered'='MINISTERED'
'to' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Another definition for ministered that I've seen is " What cleric did".)