Taken to the cleaners -- as teddy bear has been? (7)
I believe the answer is:
stuffed
'been?' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are past participle verbs, I can't see how one could define the other.
'taken to the cleaners as teddy bear' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'taken' could be 'fed' (feeding is a kind of taking) and 'fed' is located in the answer.
'the' could be 't' (the is pronounced as a 't' sound in some dialects) and 't' is located in the answer.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
'has' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for stuffed that I've seen before include "Crammed" , "Full of food" , "A . . . . . . . shirt is a pompous man" .)