Enlisted soldiers turned up, extremely loyal in dire need (8)
I believe the answer is:
enrolled
'enlisted' is the definition.
Both the answer and definition are adjectives. Maybe there's an association between them I don't understand?
'soldiers turned up extremely loyal in dire need' is the wordplay.
'soldiers' becomes 'OR' (Other Ranks).
'turned up' says the letters should be written in reverse.
'extremely' says to hollow out the word (remove centre letters) (letters on the extremes of the word are used).
'in' indicates putting letters inside.
'dire' indicates an anagram.
'loyal' with its middle taken out is 'll'.
'or' reversed gives 'ro'.
'ro'+'ll'='roll'
'need' anagrammed gives 'ened'.
'roll' put into 'ened' is 'ENROLLED'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for enrolled that I've seen before include "Admitted" , "Entered in the register" , "Registered,entered" , "Recruited; registered" , "Accepted into organisation" .)