Distress signal covered up spy returning some silver (4,6)

'some silver' is the definition.
I don't know anything about this answer so I can't tell whether this works.

'distress signal covered up spy returning' is the wordplay.
'distress signal' becomes 'sos ' (SOS is an example).
'covered' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'spy' becomes 'snoop' (synonyms).
'returning' shows that the letters should be reversed in order.
'snoop' back-to-front is 'poons'.
'sos' enclosing 'up' is 'soups'.
'soups'+'poons'='SOUP-SPOONS'

Can you help me to learn more?