Shameful young lady, for example, supported by government (8)
I believe the answer is:
debasing
'shameful' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'young lady for example supported by government' is the wordplay.
'young lady' becomes 'deb' (short for debutante).
'for example' becomes 'as in'.
'supported by' means one lot of letters go next to another (in a down clue, some letters hold up others).
'government' becomes 'g' (abbreviation for government).
'deb'+'asin'+'g'='DEBASING'
(Other definitions for debasing that I've seen before include "Humiliating" , "Lowering in quality" .)