Male moggy to meow at first (3)
I believe the answer is:
tom
'male' is the definition.
(tom can mean a male cat)
'to meow at first' is the wordplay.
'at first' says to take the initial letters.
The initial letter of 'meow' is 'm'.
'to'+'m'='TOM'
'moggy' is the link.
I am not very happy about this link. It may belong to another bit of the clue.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for tom that I've seen before include "Cruise" , "Jerry's cartoon adversary" , "Edgar's Poor disguise (Lear)" , "What Dick Whittington had" , "Queen's mate" .)