Lose the head, hover, don't budge and wear out welcome (8)
I believe the answer is:
overstay
'lose' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are verbs in their base form, I cannot see how they can define each other.
'head hover don't budge and wear out welcome' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'don't budge' could be 'stay' (I've seen this in another clue) and 'stay' is present in the answer.
The remaining letters 'over' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
'the' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for overstay that I've seen before include "Linger too long" , "take advantage of hospitality?" , "Remain too long" , "Hang around too long" , "Leave too late" .)