Cook nearly wasted after knocking back brandies (8)
I believe the answer is:
scramble
'cook' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both related to change as well as being verbs in their base form.
Maybe they are linked in a way I don't understand?
'nearly wasted after knocking back brandies' is the wordplay.
'nearly' means to remove the last letter.
'wasted' becomes 'blew' (eg to blow money is to waste it).
'after' says to put letters next to each other.
'knocking back' says the letters should be written backwards.
'brandies' becomes 'marcs' (marc is a kind of brandy).
'marcs' back-to-front is 'scram'.
'blew' with its final letter taken away is 'ble'.
'ble' after 'scram' is 'SCRAMBLE'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for scramble that I've seen before include "difficult climb" , "Disorderly rush" , "cross-country race" , "motorsport event" , "make breakfast, perhaps" .)