Walked in home counties and had purposeful step (6)
I believe the answer is:
strode
'had purposeful step' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are past participle verbs, I cannot understand how they can define each other.
'walked in home counties' is the wordplay.
'walked' becomes 'trod' (treading is a kind of walking).
'in' is an insertion indicator.
'home counties' becomes 'SE' (Home Counties in the South East of England).
'trod' going inside 'se' is 'STRODE'.
'and' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for strode that I've seen before include "Walked fast with long steps" , "Paced" , "went on foot" , "Galumphed" .)