Imitate bird having got out of office (7)
I believe the answer is:
emulate
'imitate' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'bird having got out of office' is the wordplay.
'bird' becomes 'emu' (emu is a kind of bird).
'having got' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'out of office' becomes 'late' (I've seen this in other clues).
'emu'+'late'='EMULATE'
(Other definitions for emulate that I've seen before include "Try to do as well as, imitate" , "Strive to equal or match" , "Try to match" , "Try to surpass what one admires" , "Mimic" .)