Language to get rid of when seen as heartless (4)
I believe the answer is:
erse
'language' is the definition.
(Erse is an example)
'to get rid of when seen as heartless' is the wordplay.
'to get rid of' becomes 'erase'.
'when seen as heartless' says to hollow out the word (remove centre letters).
'erase' with its middle taken out is 'ERSE'.
(Other definitions for erse that I've seen before include "Name sometimes given to languages of the Celts in Ireland and Scotland" , "Possibly the language" , "Old Celtic language" , "Irish Gaelic language" , "Celtic tongue" .)