Sword nicked by young woman (7)
I believe the answer is:
cutlass
'sword' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'nicked by young woman' is the wordplay.
'nicked by' becomes 'cut' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'young woman' becomes 'lass' (lass is a kind of young woman).
'cut'+'lass'='CUTLASS'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for cutlass that I've seen before include "Type of sword" , "Curved sailors' sword" , "could hurt one, in the main" , "Steel" , "Pirate's weapon" .)