Enthusiastic and embracing one friend (8)
I believe the answer is:
animated
'enthusiastic' is the definition.
(I've seen this in another clue)
'and embracing one friend' is the wordplay.
'embracing' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'one' becomes 'i' (Roman numeral).
'friend' becomes 'mate' (mate is a kind of friend).
'i'+'mate'='imate'
'and' enclosing 'imate' is 'ANIMATED'.
(Other definitions for animated that I've seen before include "Lively - like cartoon films" , "Enlivened (like a cartoon film)" , "'Lively, quick (8)'" , "Diamante (anag)" , "in cartoon form" .)