Hold woman after bile was spread (7)
I believe the answer is:
believe
'hold woman' is the definition.
'believe' can be an answer for 'hold' (synonyms). I'm not certain of the 'woman' bit.
'bile was spread' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
an anagram of 'bile' is 'beli' which is located in the answer.
The remaining letters 'eve' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't understand.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
'after' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for believe that I've seen before include "Give credence to" , "Have faith; understand" , "Think" , "Have confidence in" , "Credit; accept" .)