Innocent little creatures losing heart in workplaces (4)
I believe the answer is:
labs
'workplaces' is the definition.
(lab is a kind of workplace)
'innocent little creatures losing heart in' is the wordplay.
'innocent little' becomes 'ab' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should believe this answer much more).
'creatures' becomes 'lugs' (lug is a kind of creature).
'losing heart' means to remove the middle letters.
'in' is an insertion indicator.
'lugs' with its middle removed is 'ls'.
'ab' placed inside 'ls' is 'LABS'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for labs that I've seen before include "Dogs" , "places of scientific research" , "Workplaces" .)