Crossword Genius

Secured page nearly dropped (7)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

leashed

'secured' is the definition.
(secured with a leash)

'page nearly dropped' is the wordplay.
'page' becomes 'leaf' (leaf can mean a page).
'nearly' means to remove the last letter.
'dropped' becomes 'shed' (shedding is a kind of dropping).
'leaf' with its last letter removed is 'lea'.
'lea'+'shed'='LEASHED'

(Another definition for leashed that I've seen is " restricted".)

I've seen this clue in The Times.
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