A few embracing British melancholy (6)
I believe the answer is:
sombre
'melancholy' is the definition.
(I know that melancholy can be written as sombre)
'a few embracing british' is the wordplay.
'a few' becomes 'some' (both can mean a small amount of something).
'embracing' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'british' becomes 'br' (abbreviation for British).
'some' placed around 'br' is 'SOMBRE'.
(Other definitions for sombre that I've seen before include "Dark, dull" , "Dark and gloomy of manner" , "Dark, solemn" , "Joyless" , "Dark, serious, gloomy" .)