Were your old orators meritorious? (6)
I believe the answer is:
worthy
'meritorious?' is the definition.
('worthy' can be similar in meaning to 'meritorious')
'were your old orators' is the wordplay.
I cannot really see how this works, but
'your' could be 'thy' ('thy' historically meant 'your') and 'thy' is found within the answer.
'old' could be 'o' (common abbreviation eg in OE for Old English) and 'o' is found within the answer.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for worthy that I've seen before include "Meriting respect or esteem" , "Good enough" , "VIP" , "esteemed dignitary" , "Deserving, meritorious" .)