Ran rings around act to run rings around act (8)
I believe the answer is:
defeated
'ran rings' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both related to competing as well as being past participle verbs.
Maybe you can see a link between them that I don't see?
'act to run rings around act' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'act' could be 'feat' (feat is a kind of act) and 'feat' is present in the answer.
The remaining letters 'deed' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
'around' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for defeated that I've seen before include "Did cream" , "Beat; beaten" , "Vanquished" , "Won victory over" , "foiled" .)