Periods in which the French may get held up — or anyone else (6)
I believe the answer is:
delays
'held up or anyone else' is the definition.
I can't tell whether this definition defines the answer.
'periods in which the french may' is the wordplay.
'periods' becomes 'days' (I've seen this before).
'in which' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'the french may' becomes 'el' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'days' enclosing 'el' is 'DELAYS'.
'get' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for delays that I've seen before include "Lags" , "Hinders; puts off" , "Holdups, postponements" , "Slows something down" , "Holds back, causes to be late (6)" .)