Made an effort, bound to retain right (5)
I believe the answer is:
tried
'made an effort' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'bound to retain right' is the wordplay.
'bound' becomes 'tied' ('tie' can be a synonym of 'bind').
'to retain' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'right' becomes 'r' (common abbreviation).
'tied' going around 'r' is 'TRIED'.
(Other definitions for tried that I've seen before include "checked out" , "Sampled" , "tasted" , "Made an attempt" , "Put to the test" .)