The maze of dead ends got one down (8)
I believe the answer is:
saddened
'the maze of dead ends got one down' is the definition.
I can't tell whether this defines the answer.
'dead ends got one down' is the wordplay.
'dead' becomes 'sea'.
'ends' says to hollow out the word (remove centre letters).
'got one' becomes 'ddene' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'down' becomes 'd'.
'sea' with its middle taken out is 'sa'.
'sa'+'ddene'+'d'='SADDENED'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for saddened that I've seen before include "Distressed" , "unhappiness" , "Made unhappy or melancholy" , "Made sorrowful" .)