Male representative before a battle (7)
I believe the answer is:
magenta
'battle' is the definition.
(Magenta is an example)
'male representative before a' is the wordplay.
'male' becomes 'm' (common abbreviation).
'representative' becomes 'agent' (agent is a kind of representative**).
'before' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'm'+'agent'+'a'='MAGENTA'
(Other definitions for magenta that I've seen before include "this might be an ink" , "Light purplish-red" , "Shade of purple" , "Reddish purple" , "Deep purplish red" .)