I used to think of God and naked beaux (7)
I believe the answer is:
thoreau
'i used to think' is the definition.
I can't tell whether this defines the answer.
'god and naked beaux' is the wordplay.
'god' becomes 'thor' (Thor is an example).
'and' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'naked' means to look at the middle letters (outside letters removed so centre is unclothed).
The middle of 'beaux' is 'eau'.
'thor'+'eau'='THOREAU'
'of' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for thoreau that I've seen before include "Henry David --, US essayist and poet" , "an American one" , "Henry David -, US author (Walden)" , "One who wrote" , "Henry David --, 19th century American author" .)