Old bird given repeated encouragement to act? (4)
I believe the answer is:
dodo
'old bird' is the definition.
(extinct bird)
'given repeated encouragement to act?' is the wordplay.
'given' says to put letters next to each other.
'repeated encouragement' becomes 'do' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'to act?' becomes 'do' (to do is to act or execute a task).
'do'+'do' is 'DODO'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for dodo that I've seen before include "Mauritian bird no more" , "bird long dead" , "Native of Mauritius" , "One deeply reactionary" , "silly person" .)