Surprised king surrounded by furnishing that's retro (6)
I believe the answer is:
rocked
'surprised' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are past participle verbs, I can't understand how they can define each other.
'king surrounded by furnishing that's retro' is the wordplay.
'king' becomes 'K' (chess abbreviation).
'surrounded by' is an insertion indicator.
'furnishing' becomes 'decor' (I've seen this in another clue).
'that's retro' is a reversal indicator (retro is Latin for 'backwards').
'k' put inside 'decor' is 'dekcor'.
'dekcor' in reverse letter order is 'ROCKED'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for rocked that I've seen before include "Move to and fro, as with cradle" , "Swayed or shaken - or danced vigorously" , "Moved back and forth or sideways" , "Shook, swayed" , "Startled, shaken" .)