Put pressure on material (5)
I believe the answer is:
place
'put' is the definition.
(place can mean to put something somewhere)
'pressure on material' is the wordplay.
'pressure' becomes 'p' (scientific abbreviation).
'on' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other) (in a down clue, letters appear on others).
'material' becomes 'lace' (lace is a kind of material).
'p'+'lace'='PLACE'
(Other definitions for place that I've seen before include "vacancy" , "Identify -- station" , "Spot" , "Venue" , "Locate" .)