Young lady hugs retreating Frenchman — typical! (7)
I believe the answer is:
general
'typical' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'young lady hugs retreating frenchman' is the wordplay.
'young lady' becomes 'gal' ('gal' can be a synonym of 'young lady'**).
'hugs' indicates putting letters inside.
'retreating' says the letters should be written in reverse.
'frenchman' becomes 'rene'.
'rene' back-to-front is 'ener'.
'gal' enclosing 'ener' is 'GENERAL'.
(Other definitions for general that I've seen before include "Universal" , "Army rank" , "Regular - officer" , "Enlarge for senior army officer" , "Not particular or specific" .)