Burn the tea, we hear? (4)
I believe the answer is:
char
'burn' is the definition.
(charring is a kind of burning)
'tea we hear?' is the wordplay.
'tea' becomes 'cha' (cha is a type of tea).
'we hear?' becomes 'r' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'cha'+'r'='CHAR'
'the' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for char that I've seen before include "Tea - cleaning lady" , "Fish < tea" , "Perhaps overheat" , "Tea (sl.)" , "Scorch - fish - cleaning lady" .)