Put off by German article about iron (5)
I believe the answer is:
defer
'put off' is the definition.
(I know that put off can be written as defer)
'german article about iron' is the wordplay.
'german article' becomes 'der' (definite article in German).
'about' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'iron' becomes 'Fe' (chemical symbol for iron).
'der' placed around 'fe' is 'DEFER'.
'by' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for defer that I've seen before include "Hold back to a later time" , "Give precedence to" , "Delay" , "Postpone - submit" , "Allow precedence (to)" .)