Stray to the north, half dead, during the war (6)
I believe the answer is:
wander
'stray' is the definition.
(I know that stray can be written as wander)
'the north half dead during the war' is the wordplay.
'the north' becomes 'N' (abbreviation).
'half' means to take half the letters.
'during' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'dead' halved is 'de'.
'n'+'de'='nde'
'nde' going into 'war' is 'WANDER'.
'to' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for wander that I've seen before include "Go to and fro" , "Roam around aimlessly" , "Travel aimlessly" , "Warden (anag.)" , "Roam about or digress" .)