Formidable female needing attention, a little (8)
I believe the answer is:
fearsome
'formidable' is the definition.
(I know that formidable can be written as fearsome)
'female needing attention a little' is the wordplay.
'female' becomes 'f' (common abbreviation).
'needing' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'attention' becomes 'ear' (having someone's ear is having their attention).
'a little' becomes 'some' (I've seen this before).
'f'+'ear'+'some'='FEARSOME'
(Other definitions for fearsome that I've seen before include "Dreadful" , "Horrendous" , "Daunting" , "Terrifying" , "Awful" .)