Sat beside old flame, defenceless (7)
I believe the answer is:
exposed
'defenceless' is the definition.
Both the definition and answer are adjectives. Maybe you can see a link between them that I don't see?
'sat beside old flame' is the wordplay.
'sat' becomes 'posed' ('pose' can be a synonym of 'sit').
'beside' says to put letters next to each other (I've seen this in other clues).
'old flame' becomes 'ex' (I've seen this in other clues).
'posed' put after 'ex' is 'EXPOSED'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for exposed that I've seen before include "Laid bare" , "Deprived of cover" , "Showed up" , "Made public" , "Without protection" .)