Enormous soldier ant (5)
I believe the answer is:
giant
'enormous' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'soldier ant' is the wordplay.
'soldier' becomes 'gi' (government issue or general issue**).
'gi'+'ant'='GIANT'
(Other definitions for giant that I've seen before include "Gargantuan" , "Titan" , "Creature described in 14 17" , "Ogre" , "Superhuman being" .)