Ethanol is abused in a bit of cold weather (9)
I believe the answer is:
hailstone
'a bit of cold weather' is the definition.
(hailstones might fall in cold weather)
'ethanol is abused' is the wordplay.
'abused' is an anagram indicator.
'ethanol'+'is'='ethanolis'
'ethanolis' is an anagram of 'HAILSTONE'.
'in' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for hailstone that I've seen before include "Falling ice" , "It lands with a noise" , "drop of ice" , "Frozen pellet" , "Hard precipitation" .)