Adore holding son back (7)
I believe the answer is:
reverse
'back' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'adore holding son' is the wordplay.
'adore' becomes 'revere' (revering is a kind of adoring).
'holding' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'son' becomes 's'.
'revere' going around 's' is 'REVERSE'.
(Other definitions for reverse that I've seen before include "Travel backwards" , "Setback; go back" , "A defeat to go backward" , "Severer (anag.)" , "One side of a coin" .)