Lean meat diced briefly in a stew with head of artichoke (9)
I believe the answer is:
emaciated
'lean' is the definition.
(similar in meaning)
'meat diced briefly in a stew with head of artichoke' is the wordplay.
'briefly' means to remove the last letter.
'in a stew with' is an anagram indicator.
'head of' says to take the initial letters.
The initial letter of 'artichoke' is 'a'.
'meat'+'diced'='meatdiced'
'meatdiced' with its final letter taken away is 'meatdice'.
'meatdice' mixed up with 'a' makes 'EMACIATED'.
(Other definitions for emaciated that I've seen before include "Very thin from starvation or illness" , "Abnormally thin and weak" , "of very little substance" , "Thin from illness or hunger" , "wasted" .)