Hope and Crosby almost reel (6)
I believe the answer is:
bobbin
'reel' is the definition.
(I know that reel can be written as bobbin)
'hope and crosby almost' is the wordplay.
'hope' becomes 'bob' (comedian Bob Hope).
'and' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'crosby' becomes 'Bing' (as in singer Bing Crosby).
'almost' means to remove the last letter (almost the whole word is kept).
'bing' with its last letter taken off is 'bin'.
'bob'+'bin'='BOBBIN'
(Other definitions for bobbin that I've seen before include "Small spool holding thread in machine" , "Reel for yarn" , "Cotton reel" , "Cylinder for winding thread" , "about which a yarn is spun" .)