Seemed intimidated by female wild deer (7)
I believe the answer is:
cowered
'seemed intimidated by female wild deer' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are past participle verbs, I cannot see how one could define the other.
'by female wild deer' is the wordplay.
'by' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'female' becomes 'cow' (I've seen this before).
'wild' indicates an anagram.
'deer' anagrammed gives 'ered'.
'cow'+'ered' is 'COWERED'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for cowered that I've seen before include "Cringed" , "Showed fear" , "looked fearful" .)