A cat means very little (4)
I believe the answer is:
atom
'very little' is the definition.
'atom' can be an answer for 'little' (thesaurus). I'm unsure of the 'very' bit.
'a cat' is the wordplay.
'cat' becomes 'tom' (a tom is a male cat).
'a'+'tom'='ATOM'
'means' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for atom that I've seen before include "Part of molecule" , "Neutron and proton" , "Smallest unit of matter" , "A mighty particle, can be explosive" , "Nucleus plus electrons" .)