The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 2 plus 6 plus 2 plus 5 letter word IN FLOODS OF TEARS
I've seen this crossword clue in Independent
I
N
F
L
O
O
D
S
O
F
T
E
A
R
S
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "Sent" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case sent = in floods of tears.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.