Walked purposefully and came every day, at first (5)
I believe the answer is:
paced
'walked' is the definition.
(pacing is a kind of walking)
'purposefully and came every day at first' is the wordplay.
'at first' suggests taking the first letters.
The first letters of 'purposefully and came every day' is 'PACED'.
(Other definitions for paced that I've seen before include "Steadily walked" , "Made anxious moves" , "assist an athlete" , "Measured (a distance) in steps" , "Walked about in a preoccupied or frustrated way" .)