Loves to receive greeting in river (4)
I believe the answer is:
ohio
'river' is the definition.
(Ohio is an example)
'loves to receive greeting' is the wordplay.
'loves' becomes 'oo' (love means 0 in tennis).
'to receive' indicates putting letters inside.
'greeting' becomes 'hi' (hi is a kind of greeting).
'oo' placed around 'hi' is 'OHIO'.
'in' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for ohio that I've seen before include "Turning engine part" , "Midwestern US state and river" , "US state, joined in 1803" , "Midwest US state" , "state of America" .)