He died pinching a loaf (4)
I believe the answer is:
head
'loaf' is the definition.
(slang term)
'he died pinching a' is the wordplay.
'died' becomes 'd' (abbreviation next to the year of someone's death).
'pinching' means one lot of letters goes inside another (taking inside).
'he'+'d'='hed'
'hed' enclosing 'a' is 'HEAD'.
(Other definitions for head that I've seen before include "See 25" , "Edible part of cabbage" , "Froth on beer" , "Noggin" , "Leader; front" .)