Fancy maid cardinal adored (7)
I believe the answer is:
admired
'adored' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'fancy maid cardinal' is the wordplay.
'fancy' indicates anagramming the letters.
'cardinal' becomes 'red' (I've seen this in other clues).
'maid' is an anagram of 'admi'.
'admi'+'red'='ADMIRED'
(Other definitions for admired that I've seen before include "Cherished" , "Popular" , "Esteemed" , "I'd dream (anag.)" , "Looked up to" .)