Twisted octangular cog dropped as expected (7)
I believe the answer is:
natural
'expected' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'twisted octangular cog dropped' is the wordplay.
'twisted' indicates anagramming the letters.
'dropped' is a deletion indicator (some letters are excluded or dropped).
'octangular' with 'cog' taken away is 'tanular'.
'tanular' is an anagram of 'NATURAL'.
'as' is the link.
(Other definitions for natural that I've seen before include "(In music) neither sharp nor flat" , "Additive-free" , "as one might expect" , "Not disguised" , "Frank < , twenty-one" .)