Compel students - journalist talked nonsense (9)
I believe the answer is:
drivelled
'talked nonsense' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are past participle verbs, I don't understand how one could define the other.
'compel students journalist' is the wordplay.
'compel' becomes 'drive' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'students' becomes 'll' (two abbreviations for learner).
'journalist' becomes 'ed' (short for editor).
'drive'+'ll'+'ed'='DRIVELLED'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Another definition for drivelled that I've seen is " Talked rubbish".)