Give way to animals crossing top of field (5)
I believe the answer is:
defer
'give way to' is the definition.
'animals crossing top of field' is the wordplay.
'animals' becomes 'deer' (**).
'crossing' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'top of' says to take the initial letters.
The initial letter of 'field' is 'f'.
'deer' enclosing 'f' is 'DEFER'.
(Other definitions for defer that I've seen before include "Put off or give way" , "Yield to another's opinion" , "Deal with later" , "Play for time" , "Stay" .)