The German and French held in check (5)
I believe the answer is:
deter
'check' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'the german and french held' is the wordplay.
'the german' becomes 'der' ('the' in German).
'and french' becomes 'et' ('and' in the French language).
'held' indicates putting letters inside.
'der' enclosing 'et' is 'DETER'.
'in' is the link.
(Other definitions for deter that I've seen before include "stop" , "Hinder, discourage" , "Check" , "Hinder, prevent" , "Discourage (someone from an action)" .)