Shot a duck out of the blue (3)
I believe the answer is:
try
'shot' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'a duck out of the blue' is the wordplay.
'a duck' becomes 'o'.
'out of' indicates named letters should be taken away.
'the blue' becomes 'tory' (I've seen this in other clues).
'tory' with 'o' removed is 'TRY'.
(Other definitions for try that I've seen before include "Hear court case" , "Make an attempt" , "Bid" , "Judge" , "Make severe demands on" .)