The French outlaw taking on a country (7)
I believe the answer is:
lebanon
'a country' is the definition.
(I know that Lebanon is a country)
'the french outlaw taking on' is the wordplay.
'the french' becomes 'le' ('the' in French).
'outlaw' becomes 'ban' (banning is a kind of outlawing).
'taking' says to put letters next to each other.
'le'+'ban'+'on'='LEBANON'
(Other definitions for lebanon that I've seen before include "Country associated with cedar trees" , "Neighbour of Israel" , "E. Mediterranean nation" , "Middle Eastern region" , "Nab Noel in eastern Med. country" .)