Hostility shown by bowler, perhaps English (4)
I believe the answer is:
hate
'hostility' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'shown by bowler perhaps english' is the wordplay.
'shown by' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'bowler perhaps' becomes 'hat' (bowler is a kind of hat**).
'english' becomes 'e' (abbreviation).
'hat' put next to 'e' is 'HATE'.
(Other definitions for hate that I've seen before include "Loathing" , "powerful emotion" , "Passionately dislike" , "Abhor" , "Despise" .)