Group playing in desert (7)
I believe the answer is:
abandon
'desert' is the definition.
(synonyms)
'group playing' is the wordplay.
'group' becomes 'aband' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'playing' becomes 'on'.
'aband'+'on'='ABANDON'
'in' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for abandon that I've seen before include "Desert - recklessness" , "Give up (something) completely" , "scrap" , "Desert - it's wild" , "Desert; lack of restraint" .)