Change direction after hesitation over tasteless articles (6)
I believe the answer is:
mutate
'change' is the definition.
(mutating is a kind of changing)
'direction after hesitation over tasteless articles' is the wordplay.
'direction' becomes 'e' (E is an example).
'after' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'hesitation' becomes 'um'.
'over' shows that the letters should be reversed in order.
'tasteless articles' becomes 'tat' (I've seen this before).
'um' back-to-front is 'mu'.
'mu'+'tat'='mutat'
'e' put after 'mutat' is 'MUTATE'.
(Other definitions for mutate that I've seen before include "Alter genetically" , "effect major change" , "Undergo alteration in form" , "Change into a variant form" , "Undergo genetic change" .)