Obsequious southern host entertaining maiden (6)
I believe the answer is:
smarmy
'obsequious' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'southern host entertaining maiden' is the wordplay.
'southern' becomes 's' (abbreviation).
'host' becomes 'army' (both can mean a large number of people).
'entertaining' is an insertion indicator (inviting in, as for dinner).
'maiden' becomes 'm' (cricket abbreviation).
's'+'army'='sarmy'
'sarmy' placed around 'm' is 'SMARMY'.
(Other definitions for smarmy that I've seen before include "Unpleasantly suave or ingratiating" , "Oleaginous" , "Excessively ingratiating" , "Unctuous" , "Obsequious" .)