Stare at freelance recruits heading north (4)
I believe the answer is:
leer
'stare' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both to do with perception as well as being verbs in their base form.
Maybe you can see a link between them that I don't see?
'at freelance recruits heading north' is the wordplay.
'at' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'freelance' becomes 'eel' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'heading' indicates taking the first letters (head could mean the top letter).
'north' shows that the letters should be reversed in order (in a down clue, letters go up or 'north').
The initial letter of 'recruits' is 'r'.
'eel' put after 'r' is 'reel'.
'reel' reversed gives 'LEER'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for leer that I've seen before include "Ogle, smirk" , "Give sly look" , "Give lascivious look" , "Gaze lasciviously at" , "Lecherous look" .)