Anyhow, most chaps go through it for brief periods (7)
I believe the answer is:
moments
'periods' is the definition.
(moment is a kind of period)
'anyhow most chaps go through it for brief' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'chaps' could be 'men' (chap can mean a man) and 'men' is located in the answer.
an anagram of 'most' is 'mots' which is located in the left over letters.
No letters remain.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for moments that I've seen before include "Points in time" , "Very brief periods of time" , "Short periods" .)