Was active on a pressing occasion (6)
I believe the answer is:
ironed
'was active on a pressing occasion' is the definition.
I can't tell whether this defines the answer.
'active on a pressing occasion' is the wordplay.
'active' becomes 'on' (I've seen this in other clues).
'on' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'a pressing occasion' becomes 'ired' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'on' inserted inside 'ired' is 'IRONED'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for ironed that I've seen before include "Smoothed cloth with flatbased implement" , "De Niro (anag)" , "Removed creases" , "Smoothed out wrinkles" , "flattened" .)