Put in order for southern soldiers to conceal craft? (7)
I believe the answer is:
smarten
'put in order' is the definition.
Both the answer and definition are verbs in their base form.
Perhaps there's an association between them I don't understand?
'southern soldiers to conceal craft?' is the wordplay.
'southern' becomes 's' (abbreviation).
'soldiers' becomes 'men' (men can mean a group of soldiers).
'to conceal' is an insertion indicator.
'craft?' becomes 'art' (both can mean cunning or trickery).
'men' enclosing 'art' is 'marten'.
's'+'marten'='SMARTEN'
'for' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for smarten that I've seen before include "Improve appearance" , "Become bright, tidy and more efficient" , "Spruce up" , "Brighten (up)" .)