The better half covered for the poor worried soldier (7)
I believe the answer is:
trooper
'soldier' is the definition.
(I know that trooper is a type of soldier)
'the better half covered for the poor worried' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'the' could be 't' (the is pronounced as a 't' sound in some dialects) and 't' is present in the answer.
an anagram of 'poor' is 'roop' which is located in the answer.
The remaining letters 'er' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't understand.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for trooper that I've seen before include "Cavalry 21" , "Private soldier" , "He swears" , "Proverbially swearing soldier" , "ship" .)