A little male, cold, enveloped in hate (7)
I believe the answer is:
modicum
'a little' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'male cold enveloped in hate' is the wordplay.
'male' becomes 'm' (common abbreviation).
'cold' becomes 'c' (eg on taps).
'enveloped in' is an insertion indicator.
'hate' becomes 'odium' (odium is a kind of hate).
'c' put inside 'odium' is 'odicum'.
'm'+'odicum'='MODICUM'
(Other definitions for modicum that I've seen before include "dash" , "Moderate quantity" , "I cod Mum into providing a small quantity" , "Token amount" , "suggestion" .)