Witness accepts partners holding hands in hearing? (5)
I believe the answer is:
sense
'hands in hearing?' is the definition.
'sense' can be an answer for 'hearing?' (hearing is a kind of sense). I am not certain of the 'hands in' bit.
'witness accepts partners' is the wordplay.
'witness' becomes 'see' (synonyms).
'accepts' indicates putting letters inside.
'partners' becomes 'ns' (North and South are partners in the game bridge).
'see' enclosing 'ns' is 'SENSE'.
'holding' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for sense that I've seen before include "may be common" , "Intuit; reason" , "eg Taste, smell" , "Pick up point" , "eg Vision, hearing" .)