Dismay complete, beginning to affect our side (7)
I believe the answer is:
overawe
'dismay' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both to do with human feelings as well as being verbs in their base form.
Perhaps you can see an association between them that I don't see?
'complete beginning to affect our side' is the wordplay.
'complete' becomes 'over' (I've seen this in other clues).
'beginning to' says to take the initial letters.
'our side' becomes 'we'.
The first letter of 'affect' is 'a'.
'over'+'a'+'we'='OVERAWE'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for overawe that I've seen before include "bully" , "Cow" , "Browbeat" , "profoundly impress" , "Overcome with fear and wonder" .)