Officer, absorbing end of prayer on Sabbath, grieves (7)
I believe the answer is:
laments
'grieves' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both to do with human feelings as well as being verbs in their -s form.
Maybe there's an association between them I don't understand?
'officer absorbing end of prayer on sabbath' is the wordplay.
'officer' becomes 'lt' (abbreviation for lieutenant).
'absorbing' indicates putting letters inside.
'end of prayer' becomes 'amen' (I've seen this before).
'on' says to put letters next to each other.
'sabbath' becomes 's'.
'lt' placed around 'amen' is 'lament'.
'lament'+'s'='LAMENTS'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for laments that I've seen before include "Bewails" , "Sad songs" , "complaints" , "Bemoans" , "Mourns" .)