Collapse of French female no longer with us (7)
I believe the answer is:
deflate
'collapse' is the definition.
(I know that deflate is a more specific form of the action collapse)
'of french female no longer with us' is the wordplay.
'of french' becomes 'de' ('of' in French).
'female' becomes 'f' (common abbreviation).
'no longer with us' becomes 'late' (I've seen this in other clues).
'de'+'f'+'late'='DEFLATE'
(Other definitions for deflate that I've seen before include "Release air from" , "Take air" , "Release gas from" , "Let air out of, like balloon" , "Cause to shrink or collapse" .)