Surprise cut short on river (6)
I believe the answer is:
amazon
'river' is the definition.
(Amazon is an example)
'surprise cut short on' is the wordplay.
'surprise' becomes 'amaze' (amazing is a kind of surprising).
'cut short' means to remove the last letter.
'amaze' with its last letter removed is 'amaz'.
'amaz'+'on'='AMAZON'
(Other definitions for amazon that I've seen before include "Encourage, ask" , "Strong, aggressive woman" , "Female warrior of Greek myth" , "Female warrior - parrot - South American river" , "Fighting woman from a great river" .)