Clip round the ear - or waist (4)
I believe the answer is:
belt
'clip' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'round the ear or waist' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'the' could be 't' (the is pronounced as a 't' sound in some dialects) and 't' is present in the answer.
The remaining letters 'bel' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't understand.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for belt that I've seen before include "Strap" , "Zone - connecting strip" , "Hit - trousers' support" , "A vigorous blow" , "Token of judo rank" .)