I'm off food, by the sound of it? (4)
I believe the answer is:
ciao
'sound of it?' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both related to communication as well as being singular nouns.
Maybe you can see a link between them that I can't see?
'i'm off food' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'i'm' could be 'i' (I've seen this in other clues) and 'i' is present in the answer.
'food' could be 'a' (A is an example) and 'a' is located in the answer.
The remaining letters 'co' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
'by the' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for ciao that I've seen before include "Hello and goodbye to the Italians" , "See you later in Rome?" , "Italian's so long" , "Hi - bye" , "Buongiorno o arrivederci" .)