Frenchman without a wife left for a fresh start (7)
I believe the answer is:
renewal
'a fresh start' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'frenchman without a wife left' is the wordplay.
'frenchman' becomes 'rene'.
'without' indicates putting letters inside.
'wife left' becomes 'wl' (this could be a standard abbreviation which I don't know about).
'a' going into 'wl' is 'wal'.
'rene'+'wal'='RENEWAL'
'for' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for renewal that I've seen before include "Rehabilitation" , "Extension (of a licence)" , "Repair" , "Renovation, revival" , "Renovation; resumption" .)