Breaking down red German ring (7)
I believe the answer is:
rotting
'breaking' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both related to change as well as being present participle verbs.
Perhaps you can see a link between them that I don't see?
'down red german ring' is the wordplay.
'down red german' becomes 'rot' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'ring' becomes 'ting' (I have seen 'Sharp ring ' mean 'ting' so perhaps 'ring' could also mean 'ting').
'rot'+'ting'='ROTTING'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for rotting that I've seen before include "corruption?" , "Going bad" , "Decaying" , "Sultanate in NW Borneo" , "Putrid" .)