Heard a woman cry (4)
I believe the answer is:
alas
'cry' is the definition.
(I have seen 'Cry of grief' mean 'alas' so perhaps 'cry' could also mean 'alas')
'heard a woman' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'a' is present in the answer.
The remaining letters 'las' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for alas that I've seen before include "Exclamation of misfortune" , "Sad expression" , "Too bad, so sad" , "Expression of grief/pity" , "Oh dear!" .)