Withdraw surprise answer in group (4,1,4,4)
I believe the answer is:
take a back seat
'withdraw' is the definition.
I don't know anything about this answer so I can't tell whether this works.
'surprise answer in group' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'surprise' could be 'takeaback' (taking aback is a kind of surprising) and 'takeaback' is located in the answer.
'answer' could be 'a' (abbreviation eg in Q and A) and 'a' is located in the answer.
'group' could be 'set' (both can mean a collection) and 'set' is located in the remaining letters.
This accounts for all the letters.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for take a back seat that I've seen before include "Go to rear of theatre" , "Withdraw into a subordinate position" , "Only watch, perhaps" , "from behind sofa?" , "Let another lead" .)