Cyril lost songlike quality (5)
I believe the answer is:
lyric
'songlike quality' is the definition.
Both the definition and answer are adjectives. Perhaps you can see an association between them that I don't see?
'cyril lost' is the wordplay.
'lost' indicates an anagram.
'cyril' is an anagram of 'LYRIC'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for lyric that I've seen before include "Song's text" , "Expressing the poet's emotions" , "Of poetry that expresses thoughts and feelings" , "having a light quality" , "part of song" .)