Burnt-out writer dumped in street (5)
I believe the answer is:
spent
'burnt-out' is the definition.
(synonyms)
'writer dumped in street' is the wordplay.
'writer' becomes 'pen' (I've seen this before).
'dumped in' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'street' becomes 'st'.
'pen' placed inside 'st' is 'SPENT'.
(Other definitions for spent that I've seen before include "Worn out - after shopping?" , "Burned-out" , "Worn Out, exhausted" , "Used up; exhausted" , "Drained of energy - or paid out" .)