Find despondent girl, so to speak (6)
I believe the answer is:
locate
'find' is the definition.
(I know that locate is a more specific form of the action find)
'despondent girl so to speak' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'girl' could be 'cate' and 'cate' is found within the answer.
The remaining letters 'lo' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for locate that I've seen before include "Find by searching" , "Track down" , "Fix position of" , "Pinpoint the position" , "Lay one's hands on (something)" .)