A tiller turned out exact (7)
I believe the answer is:
literal
'exact' is the definition.
('literal' can be similar in meaning to 'exact')
'a tiller turned out' is the wordplay.
'turned out' indicates an anagram.
'a'+'tiller'='atiller'
'atiller' is an anagram of 'LITERAL'.
(Other definitions for literal that I've seen before include "Exact (translation)" , "According to the letter" , "excluding metaphors" , "typographical error" , "Using words in their most basic sense, exact" .)