Hide article in play (7)
I believe the answer is:
leather
'hide' is the definition.
(an animal hide)
'article in play' is the wordplay.
'article' becomes 'the' (the definite article in English).
'in' is an insertion indicator.
'play' becomes 'lear' (I've seen this before).
'the' put inside 'lear' is 'LEATHER'.
(Other definitions for leather that I've seen before include "Fabric" , "calf" , "Beat" , "Processed animal skin" , "Tanned animal skin" .)