Bribe the French to make cockups (7)
I believe the answer is:
bungles
'make cockups' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both acts as well as being plural nouns.
Maybe you can see a link between them that I don't see?
'bribe the french' is the wordplay.
'bribe' becomes 'bung' (I've seen this before).
'the french' becomes 'les' (plural form of 'the' in French).
'bung'+'les'='BUNGLES'
'to' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Another definition for bungles that I've seen is " messes up".)