Saw offscreen managed without (9)
I believe the answer is:
discerned
'saw' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both to do with perception as well as being past participle verbs.
Perhaps you can see an association between them that I can't see?
'offscreen managed without' is the wordplay.
'offscreen' becomes 'scerne' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'managed' becomes 'did' ('do' can mean 'manage' as in 'do without').
'without' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'scerne' placed inside 'did' is 'DISCERNED'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for discerned that I've seen before include "Distinguished, made out" , "Caught sight of" , "Identified by close investigation" .)