Lionlike, the French take nothing before nine (7)
I believe the answer is:
leonine
'lionlike' is the definition.
(I've seen this in another clue)
'the french take nothing before nine' is the wordplay.
'the french' becomes 'le' ('the' in French).
'take' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'nothing' becomes 'O' (looks like zero - 0).
'before' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'le'+'o'+'nine'='LEONINE'
(Other definitions for leonine that I've seen before include "Lion-like" , "Descriptive of pride" , "Like a big cat" , "Like the king of the forest" , "Resembling lions" .)