Share mainly preserved area in bitter surroundings (4,4)
I believe the answer is:
take part
'share' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are verbs in their base form, I don't understand how one could define the other.
'mainly preserved area in bitter surroundings' is the wordplay.
'mainly' means to remove the last letter.
'preserved' becomes 'kept' ('keep' can be a synonym of 'preserve').
'area' becomes 'a' (maths abbreviation).
'in bitter' becomes 'tart' (I've seen this before. I am not sure about the 'in' bit.**).
'surroundings' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'kept' with its last letter removed is 'kep'.
'kep'+'a'='kepa'
'kepa' put inside 'tart' is 'TAKE PART'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for take part that I've seen before include "Participate, join in" , "Appear" .)