I took food, having arrived earlier, turning waste away? (8)
I believe the answer is:
emaciate
'waste away?' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'i took food having arrived earlier turning' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'i' could be 'a' and 'a' is found within the answer.
'took' could be 'ate' (eating is a kind of taking) and 'ate' is located in the answer.
'food' could be 'e' (E is an example) and 'e' is located in the answer.
The remaining letters 'mci' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't understand.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for emaciate that I've seen before include "get very thin" , "Make extremely thin" , "Waste away" .)