Eager Nan's left cotton cloth (4)
I believe the answer is:
keen
'eager' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'nan's left cotton cloth' is the wordplay.
'left' suggests deleting specific letters.
'cotton cloth' becomes 'nankeen' (I've seen this before).
'nankeen' with 'nan' removed is 'KEEN'.
(Other definitions for keen that I've seen before include "mourn for the departed" , "Razor-edged" , "Fervent" , "Fierce - sharp" , "devoted" .)