Designates peeled pears to Karl, say (8)
I believe the answer is:
earmarks
'designates' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both related to thinking as well as being verbs in their -s form.
Perhaps there's a link between them I don't understand?
'peeled pears to karl say' is the wordplay.
'peeled' means to look at the middle letters (outer letters are peeled off).
'to karl say' becomes 'marks' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
The middle of 'pears' is 'ear'.
'ear'+'marks'='EARMARKS'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for earmarks that I've seen before include "Characteristic features" , "Allocates; reserves" , "Sets aside, reserves" , "Identifies" , "Puts distinguishing sign on - begins aurally" .)