Daughter shaking trees with small leaves (7)
I believe the answer is:
deserts
'leaves' is the definition.
(deserting is a kind of leaving)
'daughter shaking trees with small' is the wordplay.
'daughter' becomes 'd' (**).
'shaking' indicates an anagram.
'with' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'small' becomes 's' (abbreviation - e.g. clothes size).
'trees' put after 's' is 'strees'.
'strees' is an anagram of 'eserts'.
'd'+'eserts'='DESERTS'
(Other definitions for deserts that I've seen before include "Abandons; barren places" , "Arid areas" , "Kalahari and Gobi" , "Areas like the Sahara" , "Abandons - just reward" .)