Almost loathe bowler, for one (3)
I believe the answer is:
hat
'bowler for one' is the definition.
(bowler is a kind of hat)
'almost loathe' is the wordplay.
'almost' means to remove the last letter (most of the word but not all of it).
'loathe' becomes 'hate' (I've seen this before).
'hate' with its final letter removed is 'HAT'.
(Other definitions for hat that I've seen before include "Headdress" , "Item of headgear" , "Lid" , "e.g. Pork pie" , "Bowler maybe" .)