Cheer up, somehow, without husband to assess and improve (10)
I believe the answer is:
recuperate
'improve' is the definition.
(I know that recuperate is a more specific form of the action improve)
'cheer up somehow without husband to assess' is the wordplay.
I cannot really see how this works, but
'up' is present in the answer.
'assess' could be 'rate' (rating is a kind of assessing) and 'rate' is found within the answer.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
'and' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for recuperate that I've seen before include "Recover from an illness" , "Convalesce" , "Rally, recover" , "Get better" .)