Regarded rush to secure place (7)
I believe the answer is:
reputed
'regarded' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'rush to secure place' is the wordplay.
'rush' becomes 'reed' (plants found by water).
'to secure' means one lot of letters goes inside another (inserted letters are secured inside).
'place' becomes 'put' (synonyms).
'reed' going around 'put' is 'REPUTED'.
(Other definitions for reputed that I've seen before include "Alleged" , "Rumoured, reckoned" , "Generally believed to exist" , "Deemed" , "Generally believed (to be the case)" .)