Equipped with weapon in hospital (5)
I believe the answer is:
armed
'equipped' is the definition.
(similar in meaning)
'with weapon in hospital' is the wordplay.
'with' says to put letters next to each other.
'weapon' becomes 'arm' (synonyms).
'in hospital' becomes 'ed' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'arm' put next to 'ed' is 'ARMED'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for armed that I've seen before include "Dream about carrying weapons" , "Being equipped with 25 Across" , "Given weapons" , "Tooled up" , "With a piece" .)