Hurts to cut off head and limbs (4)
I believe the answer is:
arms
'limbs' is the definition.
(arm is a kind of limb)
'hurts to cut off head' is the wordplay.
'hurts' becomes 'harms' ('harm' can be a synonym of 'hurt').
'to cut off head' means to remove the first letter (back).
'harms' with its initial letter taken off is 'ARMS'.
'and' is the link.
(Other definitions for arms that I've seen before include "Protesting violently, up in these" , "bombs and guns etc" , "Guns et cetera" , "What the Venus de Milo lacks" , "branches" .)