Make things hard for boy to support girl (6)
I believe the answer is:
anneal
'make things hard' is the definition.
I can't tell whether this defines the answer.
'boy to support girl' is the wordplay.
'boy' becomes 'al'.
'to support' says to put letters next to each other (in a down clue, some letters hold others up).
'girl' becomes 'anne' (I've seen this before).
'al' after 'anne' is 'ANNEAL'.
'for' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for anneal that I've seen before include "Toughen, temper (metal)" , "Heat and cool slowly in order to toughen" , "Relieve stress by heating" , "get tough" , "Fire or glaze as in kiln" .)