Approaching naughty child then stopping (9)
I believe the answer is:
impending
'approaching' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'naughty child then stopping' is the wordplay.
'naughty child' becomes 'imp' (informal term for a misbehaving child).
'then' says to put letters next to each other.
'stopping' becomes 'ending' ('end' can be a synonym of 'stop').
'imp'+'ending'='IMPENDING'
(Other definitions for impending that I've seen before include "Looming" , "Threatening" , "coming?" , "About to happen" .)