Band wanting almost utter silence (4)
I believe the answer is:
sash
'band' is the definition.
(a band of material)
'wanting almost utter silence' is the wordplay.
'wanting' says to put letters next to each other.
'almost' means to remove the last letter (almost the whole word is kept).
'utter' becomes 'say' (to utter something is to speak or say it).
'silence' becomes 'sh' ('sh' is said to tell someone to be silent).
'say' with its final letter taken off is 'sa'.
'sa' put next to 'sh' is 'SASH'.
(Other definitions for sash that I've seen before include "(Uniform) strip; window-frame" , "Window frame - shoulder band" , "Band worn over shoulder or round waist" , "Type of sliding window" , "Decoration for the twelfth" .)