Reported truce spread by degrees (9)
I believe the answer is:
piecemeal
'by degrees' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'reported truce spread' is the wordplay.
'reported truce' becomes 'piece' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'spread' becomes 'meal' (a spread of food).
'piece'+'meal'='PIECEMEAL'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for piecemeal that I've seen before include "a little at a time" , "Unsystematically" , "taken bit by bit" , "by degrees" , "Claim epee in gradual unsystematic way" .)