Tied up, held in college perhaps on large island (7)
I believe the answer is:
ligated
'tied up' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'held in college perhaps on large island' is the wordplay.
'held in' indicates putting letters inside.
'college perhaps' becomes 'gated' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should believe this answer much more).
'on' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'large' becomes 'l'.
'island' becomes 'i'.
'gated' after 'l' is 'lgated'.
'lgated' going around 'i' is 'LIGATED'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for ligated that I've seen before include "Joined-up" , "tied up" .)