Very bright child reportedly drowned (3-8)
I believe the answer is:
sun-drenched
'very bright' is the definition.
I can't judge whether this definition defines the answer.
'child reportedly drowned' is the wordplay.
'child' becomes 'son' (male child).
'reportedly' indicates a 'sounds like' (homophone) clue.
'drowned' becomes 'drenched' (I can't justify this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'son' sounds like 'sun'.
'sun'+'drenched'='SUN-DRENCHED'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for sun-drenched that I've seen before include "Exposed to lots of solar rays" , "Exposed to copious solar rays" , "Receiving a lot of warm rays" , "Exposed to lots of natural light" .)