Late coming back, receiving greeting, cold, moral (7)
I believe the answer is:
ethical
'moral' is the definition.
(synonyms)
'late coming back receiving greeting cold' is the wordplay.
'coming back' shows that the letters should be reversed in order.
'receiving' is an insertion indicator.
'greeting' becomes 'hi' (hi is a kind of greeting).
'cold' becomes 'c' (eg on taps).
'late' in reverse letter order is 'etal'.
'hi'+'c'='hic'
'etal' enclosing 'hic' is 'ETHICAL'.
(Other definitions for ethical that I've seen before include "Principled (behaviour)" , "Relating to morals" , "Morally correct, honourable" , "Abiding by moral principles" , "not advertised to the general public" .)