Push in so as to give pain (6)
I believe the answer is:
punish
'give pain' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are verbs in their base form, I don't understand how they can define each other.
'push in so as' is the wordplay.
'push in' can be anagrammed to 'PUNISH'.
But, I am unsure how this is indicated.
'to' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for punish that I've seen before include "Fine maybe" , "Possibly fine" , "beat" , "Penalise" , "Like wordplay in speech" .)