Heated conflict with male (4)
I believe the answer is:
warm
'heated' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'conflict with male' is the wordplay.
'conflict' becomes 'war' (war is a kind of conflict).
'with' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'male' becomes 'm' (common abbreviation).
'war'+'m'='WARM'
(Other definitions for warm that I've seen before include "Moderately hot" , "Welcoming - getting close!" , "Affectionate; quite hot" , "On the brink of making discovery" , "Friendly" .)