Examine china dish missing lid's top (7)
I believe the answer is:
palpate
'examine' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'china dish missing lid's top' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'china' could be 'pal' (I've seen this before) and 'pal' is found within the answer.
'dish' could be 'pate' (I've seen this in other clues) and 'pate' is found in the answer.
No letters remain.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for palpate that I've seen before include "needed to make pressing investigation" , "Touch" , "Examine medically by feeling with hands" .)