It pours tea to us quietly by design (5)
I believe the answer is:
spout
'it pours tea' is the definition.
The definition suggests a singular noun which matches the answer.
'to us quietly by design' is the wordplay.
'quietly' becomes 'p' (p for piano and quiet).
'by' says to put letters next to each other.
'design' is an anagram indicator.
'to'+'us'+'p'='tousp'
'tousp' with letters rearranged gives 'SPOUT'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for spout that I've seen before include "Projecting tube through which liquid is poured" , "Gush" , "Discharge" , "Make speech; part of teapot" , "Talk (rubbish); part of pot" .)