One can be seen to be out of water (5)
I believe the answer is:
seine
'water' is the definition.
(Seine is an example)
'one can be seen to be out' is the wordplay.
'one' becomes 'i' (Roman numeral).
'can' is an anagram indicator (I've seen 'canned' mean this (canned can mean drunk)).
'to be out' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'seen' anagrammed gives 'sene'.
'i' placed within 'sene' is 'SEINE'.
'of' is the link.
(Other definitions for seine that I've seen before include "Paris river" , "French river -- type of fishing net" , "Second longest river in France" , "Paris's river" , "Parisian river" .)