Inactive rook, chess piece put in spot (7)
I believe the answer is:
dormant
'inactive' is the definition.
('dormant' can be similar in meaning to 'inactive')
'rook chess piece put in spot' is the wordplay.
'rook' becomes 'r' (abbreviation in chess).
'chess piece' becomes 'man' (I've seen this before).
'put in' is an insertion indicator.
'spot' becomes 'dot' (I've seen this before).
'r'+'man'='rman'
'rman' going within 'dot' is 'DORMANT'.
(Other definitions for dormant that I've seen before include "In deep sleep" , "Inactive, but not dead" , "Temporarily quiet" , "Lethargic" , "Temporarily inactive, being mordant" .)