Hold back female artist during check (7)
I believe the answer is:
refrain
'hold back' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'female artist during check' is the wordplay.
'female' becomes 'f' (abbreviation).
'artist' becomes 'ra' (Royal Academician, member of Royal Academy of Arts).
'during' indicates putting letters inside.
'check' becomes 'rein' (both can mean to control or limit).
'f'+'ra'='fra'
'fra' going inside 'rein' is 'REFRAIN'.
(Other definitions for refrain that I've seen before include "tune" , "Words repeated after verses" , "Lines repeated at the end of each verse" , "Stop activity" , "Do without" .)