Staff deserved getting soaked (9)
I believe the answer is:
macerated
'soaked' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'staff deserved getting' is the wordplay.
'staff' becomes 'mace' (mace is a kind of staff).
'deserved' becomes 'rated' ('rate' can be a synonym of 'deserve').
'getting' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'mace'+'rated'='MACERATED'
(Other definitions for macerated that I've seen before include "Wet" , "softened by soaking" .)