Formed bed in earth and wintered there? (10)

I believe the answer is:

hibernated

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'wintered there?' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are past participle verbs, I cannot see how one could define the other.

'formed bed in earth' is the wordplay.
'formed' indicates anagramming the letters.
'bed'+'in'+'earth'='bedinearth'
'bedinearth' is an anagram of 'HIBERNATED'.

'and' acts as a link.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Another definition for hibernated that I've seen is " Lay dormant till spring".)

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