The French worker was tipped (5)
I believe the answer is:
leant
'tipped' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'the french worker' is the wordplay.
'the french' becomes 'le' ('the' in French).
'worker' becomes 'ant' (worker is a type of ant).
'le'+'ant'='LEANT'
'was' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for leant that I've seen before include "Had tendency" , "Inclined (towards)" , "Relied (on); inclined" , "Tilted" , "pressed on" .)