Dreadful day I recall with no phone (4)
I believe the answer is:
dire
'dreadful' is the definition.
('dire' can be a synonym of 'dreadful')
'day i recall with no phone' is the wordplay.
'day i' becomes 'di' (this might be a standard abbreviation I've not previously seen).
'with no' suggests deleting specific letters.
'phone' becomes 'call' ('call' can be a synonym of 'phone').
'recall' with 'call' taken out is 're'.
'di'+'re'='DIRE'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for dire that I've seen before include "Extremely serious or urgent" , "Terrible; urgent" , "Ride off in dreadful way" , "Really dreadful - ride on" , "Desperate; dreadful" .)