Dropped deer and owl performance (7)
I believe the answer is:
lowered
'dropped' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'deer and owl performance' is the wordplay.
'and' says to put letters next to each other.
'performance' indicates anagramming the letters.
'deer' after 'owl' is 'owldeer'.
'owldeer' is an anagram of 'LOWERED'.
(Other definitions for lowered that I've seen before include "Moved something down" , "looked sullen" , "Moved downwards" , "Let down gently" , "Brought down" .)