Takes ecstasy - topless, when visiting Cyprus on vacation (8)
I believe the answer is:
captures
'takes' is the definition.
(capturing is a kind of taking)
'ecstasy topless when visiting cyprus on vacation' is the wordplay.
'ecstasy' becomes 'rapture' (synonyms).
'topless' means to remove the first letter.
'when visiting' indicates putting letters inside.
'cyprus on vacation' becomes 'cs' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'rapture' with its first letter removed is 'apture'.
'apture' inserted within 'cs' is 'CAPTURES'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for captures that I've seen before include "Bags" , "Takes prisoner or gains control by force" .)