Exposed victory over department controlling southwest
I believe the answer is:
windswept
'exposed' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'victory over department controlling southwest' is the wordplay.
'victory' becomes 'win' (a win is a victory).
'over' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'department' becomes 'dept'.
'controlling' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'southwest' becomes 'sw' (synonyms).
'dept' placed around 'sw' is 'dswept'.
'win'+'dswept'='WINDSWEPT'
(Other definitions for windswept that I've seen before include "having dishevelled look" , "suffering a blow" , "Exposed to gales" , "beaten by the weather" , "affected by gale" .)