Care, however, taken at first (7)
I believe the answer is:
thought
'care' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'however taken at first' is the wordplay.
'however' becomes 'though' ('though' can be a synonym of 'however').
'at first' says to take the initial letters.
The initial letter of 'taken' is 't'.
'though'+'t'='THOUGHT'
(Other definitions for thought that I've seen before include "Idea, opinion" , "Performed brain operations" , "That's an idea" , "Musing" , "Thinking process" .)