Is backing onto street, caught in act and stopped (8)
I believe the answer is:
desisted
'stopped' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'is backing onto street caught in act' is the wordplay.
'is backing' becomes 'si' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'onto' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'street' becomes 'st'.
'caught in' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'act' becomes 'deed' (deed is a kind of act).
'si'+'st'='sist'
'sist' inserted into 'deed' is 'DESISTED'.
'and' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for desisted that I've seen before include "Chose not to do" , "Stopped doing something" , "Refrained from doing something" , "Ceased, stopped trying" , "Refrained - sets died (anag)" .)