Discover embracing sweetheart is punished (5)
I believe the answer is:
fined
'is punished' is the definition.
(similar in meaning)
'discover embracing sweetheart' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'sweetheart' could be 'e' (the middle letter or heart of 'sweet') and 'e' is present in the answer.
'discover' could be 'find' (finding is a kind of discovering) and 'find' is located in the remaining letters.
This accounts for all the letters.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for fined that I've seen before include "Fed in (anag.)" , "Imposed financial penalty on" , "Mulcted" , "Ordered to pay penalty" .)