Timid camper's covering topless resident (9)
I believe the answer is:
tentative
'timid' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'camper's covering topless resident' is the wordplay.
'camper's covering' becomes 'tent' (I've seen this in another clue).
'topless' means to remove the first letter.
'resident' becomes 'native' (I've seen this in other clues).
'native' with its initial letter taken away is 'ative'.
'tent'+'ative'='TENTATIVE'
(Other definitions for tentative that I've seen before include "Experimental" , "Hesitant; provisional" , "Exploratory, unconfident" , "Diffident" , "To be confirmed" .)