Daily leader studied in awe (5)
I believe the answer is:
dread
'awe' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'daily leader studied' is the wordplay.
'leader' says to take the initial letters.
'studied' becomes 'read' (I've seen this before).
The first letter of 'daily' is 'd'.
'd'+'read'='DREAD'
'in' is the link.
(Other definitions for dread that I've seen before include "Great fear or apprehension" , "Intense fear" , "Fear - dire" , "Frightful" , "fright" .)