Protect new turn by river (7)
I believe the answer is:
nurture
'protect' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'new turn by river' is the wordplay.
'new' indicates anagramming the letters.
'by' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'river' becomes 'ure' (I have seen 'River of Wensleydale ' mean 'ure' so perhaps 'river' could also mean 'ure'**).
'turn' anagrammed gives 'nurt'.
'nurt'+'ure'='NURTURE'
(Other definitions for nurture that I've seen before include "Cherish (an ambition)" , "Raise" , "Encourage development of (a child)" , "Foster, feed" , "Rue runt involved in process of rearing" .)