Hold out a key that's damaged (5)
I believe the answer is:
holed
'damaged' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are past participle verbs, I don't understand how they can define each other.
'hold out a key that's' is the wordplay.
'out' means to remove the last letter.
'a key' becomes 'e' (musical key).
'that' becomes 'd' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should believe this answer much more).
'hold' with its last letter removed is 'hol'.
'hol'+'e'+'d'='HOLED'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for holed that I've seen before include "Potted (ball)" , "Perforated" , "Likely to sink" , "Like leaky vessel?" , "after being hit by torpedo" .)