Contraction of silver cracks beaker badly — result? (8)
I believe the answer is:
breakage
'result?' is the definition.
(I have seen 'Result of clumsiness' mean 'breakage' so perhaps 'result' could also mean 'breakage')
'contraction of silver cracks beaker badly' is the wordplay.
'contraction of silver' becomes 'ag' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'cracks' indicates putting letters inside (some letters create an opening in the word).
'badly' indicates anagramming the letters.
'beaker' with letters rearranged gives 'breake'.
'ag' placed inside 'breake' is 'BREAKAGE'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for breakage that I've seen before include "Smashed article" , "Damage caused by smashing" , "Act of smashing" , "Result of clumsiness" , "Fracture" .)