Given food outside, chap unravelled (6)
I believe the answer is:
frayed
'unravelled' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both to do with contact as well as being past participle verbs.
Maybe there's a link between them I don't understand?
'given food outside chap' is the wordplay.
'given food' becomes 'fed' (I've seen this in other clues).
'outside' is an insertion indicator.
'chap' becomes 'ray' (man's name).
'fed' going around 'ray' is 'FRAYED'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for frayed that I've seen before include "in tatters" , "Ragged at the edges" , "Tattered and threadbare" , "Well worn with loose threads" , "Tattered and worn at edges" .)