Starting to squeal about dupe (8)
I believe the answer is:
spawning
'starting' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both to do with creating things as well as being present participle verbs.
Perhaps you can see a link between them that I don't see?
'squeal about dupe' is the wordplay.
'squeal' becomes 'sing' (both can mean to act as an informant).
'about' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'dupe' becomes 'pawn' (I've seen this before).
'sing' going around 'pawn' is 'SPAWNING'.
'to' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Another definition for spawning that I've seen is " (Of fish) releasing eggs".)