Fall in drops and drips regularly lit up (6)
I believe the answer is:
distil
'fall in drops' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are verbs in their base form, I cannot understand how they can define each other.
'drips regularly lit up' is the wordplay.
'regularly' indicates alternate letters (regularly take one letter, leave next etc.).
'up' says the letters should be written backwards (in down clue: letters go upwards).
The alternate letters of 'drips' are 'dis'.
'lit' backwards is 'til'.
'dis'+'til'='DISTIL'
'and' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for distil that I've seen before include "Purify (liquid) by heat" , "Vaporise and condense" , "Extract essence as with alcohol" , "Extract the essential meaning of" , "Purify (whisky, for example)" .)