Turned east, beginning to dither, went west (6)
I believe the answer is:
eddied
'turned' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both to do with motion as well as being past participle verbs.
Maybe they are linked in a way I don't understand?
'east beginning to dither went west' is the wordplay.
'east' becomes 'e' (synonyms).
'beginning to' says to take the initial letters.
'went west' becomes 'died' ('die' can be a synonym of 'go'. I am not sure about the 'west' bit.).
The first letter of 'dither' is 'd'.
'e'+'d'+'died'='EDDIED'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for eddied that I've seen before include "Of water, moved in small swirls" , "Circled in little swirls" , "(Of smoke) moved in a circular manner" , "(Current) swirled" , "went the rounds wildly" .)