Scolded, a tear-drop starts to form (5)
I believe the answer is:
rated
'scolded' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are past participle verbs, I can't understand how one could define the other.
'a tear-drop starts to form' is the wordplay.
'starts to' says to take the initial letters.
'form' indicates an anagram.
The first letter of 'drop' is 'd'.
'tear'+'d'='teard'
'teard' with letters rearranged gives 'RATED'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for rated that I've seen before include "Scolded, estimated" , "Estimated the value or assigned a ranking" , "Assessed in trade" , "Had a high opinion of" , "Censured" .)