Come down on press, receiving popular backing (6)
I believe the answer is:
punish
'come down' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are verbs in their base form, I don't understand how they can define each other.
'press receiving popular backing' is the wordplay.
'press' becomes 'push' (pushing is a kind of pressing).
'receiving' is an insertion indicator.
'popular' becomes 'in' ('in' can mean trendy).
'backing' says the letters should be written backwards.
'in' reversed gives 'ni'.
'push' enclosing 'ni' is 'PUNISH'.
'on' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for punish that I've seen before include "Fine perhaps" , "Discipline" , "Possibly fine" , "Sentence" , "Flog" .)