Halt to put the crockery back (4)
I believe the answer is:
stop
'halt' is the definition.
(I know that halt can be written as stop)
'put the crockery back' is the wordplay.
'put' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'the' becomes 't' (the is pronounced as a 't' sound in some dialects).
'crockery back' becomes 'sop' (I can't justify this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
't' inserted within 'sop' is 'STOP'.
'to' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for stop that I've seen before include "Block; end; group of organ pipes" , "Cease, desist, whoa" , "high card in bridge" , "Cease, halt" , "Organ knob; get bus here" .)