Not in a dreadful state (6)
I believe the answer is:
nation
'state' is the definition.
(I know that state can be written as nation)
'not in a dreadful' is the wordplay.
'dreadful' indicates anagramming the letters.
'not'+'in'+'a'='notina'
'notina' is an anagram of 'NATION'.
(Other definitions for nation that I've seen before include "Body of people under one government" , "Large community in one place under one government" , "Turkey?" , "People sharing a common culture/descent" , "People of a country" .)