Tree by a large expanse of water in a sorry state (7)
I believe the answer is:
ashamed
'water in a sorry state' is the definition.
Both the definition and answer are adjectives. Maybe there's a link between them I don't understand?
'tree by a large expanse' is the wordplay.
'tree' becomes 'ash' (ash is a kind of tree).
'by' says to put letters next to each other.
'large expanse' becomes 'med' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'ash'+'a'+'med'='ASHAMED'
'of' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for ashamed that I've seen before include "Embarrassed, sheepish" , "Afflicted with remorse, feeling sense of wrongdoing" , "Mortified, humbled" , "Feeling embarrassed" , "Feeling guilt or embarrassment" .)