Italian male feeding horse (5)
I believe the answer is:
roman
'italian' is the definition.
(Roman is an example)
'male feeding horse' is the wordplay.
'male' becomes 'm' (common abbreviation).
'feeding' indicates putting letters inside.
'horse' becomes 'roan' (roan is a kind of horse**).
'm' inserted into 'roan' is 'ROMAN'.
(Other definitions for roman that I've seen before include "Polanski" , "Type of candle, nose etc" , "Norma (anag) -- upright style of print" , "European citizen" , "Printing style" .)