Unsteady animal in outskirts of Torquay (7)
I believe the answer is:
tottery
'unsteady' is the definition.
(similar in meaning)
'animal in outskirts of torquay' is the wordplay.
'animal' becomes 'otter' (I've seen this before).
'in' is an insertion indicator.
'outskirts of' suggests removing the centre (only letters on the outskirts).
'torquay' with its centre removed is 'ty'.
'otter' going into 'ty' is 'TOTTERY'.
(Other definitions for tottery that I've seen before include "Likely to rock" , "Frail" , "close to collapse" , "Moving insecurely" , "Unstable on one's feet" .)