Be a beggar in court? (5)
I believe the answer is:
plead
'court?' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are verbs in their base form, I can't understand how one could define the other.
'be a beggar in' is the wordplay.
'beggar' becomes 'pled' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'in' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'a' placed inside 'pled' is 'PLEAD'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for plead that I've seen before include "Supplicate" , "Implore, entreat" , "Argue (for a cause)" , "Argue (a position in court)" , "Claim; entreat" .)