One is slow to circumnavigate the North Pole! (5)
I believe the answer is:
snail
'pole' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both to do with contact as well as being verbs in their base form.
Maybe they are linked in a way I don't understand?
'one is slow to circumnavigate the north' is the wordplay.
'one is slow' becomes 'sail' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'to circumnavigate' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'the north' becomes 'N' (abbreviation).
'sail' placed around 'n' is 'SNAIL'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for snail that I've seen before include "Common garden mollusc" , "Escargot" , "Slow slithery animal" , "Edible gastropod" , "dawdler" .)