Cut without starting to protect offspring (5)
I believe the answer is:
spawn
'offspring' is the definition.
(I've seen this in another clue)
'cut without starting to protect' is the wordplay.
'cut' becomes 'sawn' (cut with a saw).
'without' means one lot of letters goes inside another ('without' can be similar in meaning to 'outside').
'starting to' suggests taking the first letters.
The first letter of 'protect' is 'p'.
'sawn' enclosing 'p' is 'SPAWN'.
(Other definitions for spawn that I've seen before include "Eggs of fish, frogs, etc" , "Eggs deposited by amphibians" , "Breed" , "Product" , "Eggs deposited by fish" .)