Overhear First Lady's reported lapse (9)
I believe the answer is:
eavesdrop
'overhear' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'first lady's reported lapse' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'first' could be 'a' (first letter of the alphabet) and 'a' is found in the answer.
'lady's' could be 'eves' (woman's name) and 'eves' is found within the leftover letters.
The remaining letters 'drop' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't understand.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for eavesdrop that I've seen before include "Listen carefully" , "Listen secretly to private talk" , "listen privately" , "Hold secret hearing" , "Deprave so to listen secretly" .)