Article absorbing female drained of colour (5)
I believe the answer is:
ashen
'drained of colour' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'article absorbing female' is the wordplay.
'article' becomes 'an' (indefinite article).
'absorbing' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'female' becomes 'she' (I've seen this before**).
'an' enclosing 'she' is 'ASHEN'.
(Other definitions for ashen that I've seen before include "(Of face) pale (with shock)" , "Pale-faced" , "Pale in complexion" , "showing signs of anaemia" , "may be pale with shock" .)