When some water is spilt, you can't drink! (3)
I believe the answer is:
eat
'drink' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'when some water' is the wordplay.
'when' becomes 'e' (I've seen this in other clues).
'some' means to look at the middle letters.
'water' becomes 'bath' (bath water).
The central letters of 'bath' are 'at'.
'e'+'at'='EAT'
'is spilt you can't' is the link.
This may not be correct. Some or all of it may be part of another bit of the clue.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for eat that I've seen before include "Worry" , "and 27: Be humiliated" , "Gobble up" , "to do etching?" , "Make food disappear" .)