Refined robust loaf, reportedly (8)
I believe the answer is:
wellbred
'refined' is the definition.
Both the definition and answer are past participle verbs.
Maybe there's a link between them I don't understand?
'robust loaf reportedly' is the wordplay.
'robust' becomes 'well' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'loaf' becomes 'bread' (I've seen this before).
'reportedly' shows a homophone (sound like).
'bread' is a homophone of 'bred'.
'well'+'bred'='WELLBRED'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Another definition for wellbred that I've seen is " Educated in good manners".)