Briefly, the state Elvis Presley was in at first (4)
I believe the answer is:
miss
'at first' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I can't understand how one could define the other.
'briefly the state elvis presley was' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'was' could be 'is' (being is a kind of being) and 'is' is found within the answer.
'state' could be 'ms' (MS is an example) and 'ms' is located in the remaining letters.
This accounts for all the letters.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
'in' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for miss that I've seen before include "failure" , "Fail to perceive" , "Pine for - young lady" , "Agatha Christie's detective" , "Feel the loss of - schoolgirl" .)