Cruel French here? You must provide cover (7)
I believe the answer is:
vicious
'cruel' is the definition.
(synonyms)
'french here? you must provide cover' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'you' could be 'u' (homophones) and 'u' is present in the answer.
'french here?' could be 'ici' (I've seen this in another clue) and 'ici' is found in the answer.
The remaining letters 'vos' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for vicious that I've seen before include "Cruel, wicked" , "Brutal, savage and dangerous" , "Savage and strongly spiteful" , "Malicious, brutal" , "Strongly spiteful and dangerous" .)