Reportedly took steps to apply adhesive (5)
I believe the answer is:
paste
'adhesive' is the definition.
(paste is a kind of adhesive)
'reportedly took steps' is the wordplay.
'reportedly' indicates a 'sounds like' (homophone) clue.
'took steps' becomes 'paced' (I've seen this before).
'paced' is a homophone of 'PASTE'.
'to apply' acts as a link.
I am not very happy about this link. Some or all of it may belong to another bit of the clue.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for paste that I've seen before include "Stick - imitation gems" , "An adhesive, or material for artificial gems" , "Adhesive, doughy, or jewel-like substance" , "Fake gems; adhesive" , "(In computing) insert text into a document" .)