Quail ground to cook with head removed (6)
I believe the answer is:
recoil
'quail' is the definition.
(synonyms)
'ground to cook with head removed' is the wordplay.
'ground' becomes 'rec' (I've seen this before).
'to cook' becomes 'boil' (boiling is a kind of cooking).
'with head removed' means to remove the first letter.
'boil' with its initial letter taken off is 'oil'.
'rec'+'oil'='RECOIL'
(Other definitions for recoil that I've seen before include "Flinch, starts back" , "Flinch, shrink back in fear" , "withdraw" , "Jump back" , "Start back like a gun on firing" .)