Respected woman has finished holding in desire (7)
I believe the answer is:
doyenne
'respected woman' is the definition.
The definition suggests a singular noun which matches the answer.
'finished holding in desire' is the wordplay.
'finished' becomes 'done' (both can mean completed).
'holding in' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'desire' becomes 'yen' (yen can mean a longing or desire).
'done' placed around 'yen' is 'DOYENNE'.
'has' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for doyenne that I've seen before include "Woman who is senior member of her profession" , "Leading female (in field)" , "An older academic" , "Senior female member of a group" , "highly-respected" .)