Heartily wished class was smaller (6)
I believe the answer is:
shrank
'smaller' is the definition.
The answer and definition are not the same part of speech. However, adjectives and past participle verbs can sometimes define each other.
'heartily wished class' is the wordplay.
'heartily' means to look at the middle letters (the inside or heart of the word).
'class' becomes 'rank' (I have seen 'Social class ' mean 'rank' so perhaps 'class' could also mean 'rank').
The centre of 'wished' is 'sh'.
'sh'+'rank'='SHRANK'
'was' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for shrank that I've seen before include "Contracted, grew smaller" , "Became smaller" , "Flinched" , "Got less" , "Recoiled" .)