Covered earlier clothing left for gentleman (7)
I believe the answer is:
hidalgo
'gentleman' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'covered earlier clothing left' is the wordplay.
'covered' becomes 'hid'.
'earlier' becomes 'ago' (I've seen this before).
'clothing' is an insertion indicator.
'left' becomes 'l' (common abbreviation).
'ago' going around 'l' is 'algo'.
'hid'+'algo'='HIDALGO'
'for' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for hidalgo that I've seen before include "Spanish aristocrat" , "foreign gentleman" , "Spanish gentleman" , "Spanish fellow" , "Pachuca is capital of this Mexican state" .)