Contrite man with fur let off (9)
I believe the answer is:
regretful
'contrite' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'man with fur let off' is the wordplay.
'man' becomes 'reg' (**).
'with' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'off' indicates an anagram.
'fur'+'let'='furlet'
'furlet' is an anagram of 'retful'.
'reg'+'retful'='REGRETFUL'
(Other definitions for regretful that I've seen before include "penitent" , "Feeling remorse" , "Sorry, rueful" , "Feeling sorry, repentant" , "Miss Otis was" .)