Damaged one's grip on things out East (5)
I believe the answer is:
holed
'damaged one's' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are past participle verbs, I cannot see how one could define the other.
'grip on things out east' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'east' could be 'e' (abbreviation) and 'e' is found in the answer.
'grip' could be 'hold' (synonyms) and 'hold' is found in the remaining letters.
No letters remain.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for holed that I've seen before include "Scuttled" , "Potted (ball)" , "Perforated" , "Like leaky vessel?" , "Pierced side" .)
