Looked online for work - looked long and hard (7)
I believe the answer is:
googled
'hard' is the definition.
The answer and definition are different parts of speech. However, past participle verbs and adjectives can occasionally define each other.
'looked online for work looked long' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'looked' could be 'ogled' (ogling is a kind of looking) and 'ogled' is found within the answer.
'work' could be 'go' (synonyms) and 'go' is located in the answer.
This accounts for all the letters.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
'and' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for googled that I've seen before include "Technically sought information" , "Searched for" .)