I took a tea-break at work as a palliative (6)
I believe the answer is:
opiate
'a palliative' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both man-made objects as well as being singular nouns.
Maybe you can see an association between them that I can't see?
'i took a tea-break at work' is the wordplay.
'took' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'break' indicates an anagram.
'at' says to put letters next to each other (I've seen this in other clues).
'work' becomes 'op' (common abbreviation for 'opus').
'tea' with letters rearranged gives 'ate'.
'i' put next to 'ate' is 'iate'.
'iate' after 'op' is 'OPIATE'.
'as' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for opiate that I've seen before include "It induces sleep" , "one soporific" , "Narcotic drug" , "of heroin, perhaps" , "painkiller" .)