Master almost enthusiastic about head's resignation (8)
I believe the answer is:
meekness
'resignation' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'master almost enthusiastic about head's' is the wordplay.
'master' becomes 'ma' (Master of Arts).
'almost' means to remove the last letter (most of the word but not all of it).
'enthusiastic about' becomes 'eek' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'head' becomes 'ness' (ness is a headland).
'ma' with its final letter taken off is 'm'.
'm'+'eek'+'ness'='MEEKNESS'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for meekness that I've seen before include "Deference" , "Timidity" , "Submissive humility" , "Modesty, humility" , "Submissive quality" .)