Doctor protecting old male insect that's hibernating (7)
I believe the answer is:
dormant
'hibernating' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'doctor protecting old male insect' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'old' could be 'o' (common abbreviation eg in OE for Old English) and 'o' is found within the answer.
'doctor' could be 'dr' ('Dr' can be a synonym of 'doctor') and 'dr' is present in the remaining letters.
'male' could be 'man' (man is a kind of male) and 'man' is present in the answer.
A single letter 't' remains which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
'that's' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for dormant that I've seen before include "Suspended" , "asleep" , "Comatose" , "Sluggish" , "Hibernating" .)