One may laugh and laugh about desire (5)
I believe the answer is:
hyena
'one may laugh' is the definition.
'laugh about desire' is the wordplay.
'laugh' becomes 'ha'.
'about' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'desire' becomes 'yen' (yen can mean a longing or desire).
'ha' placed around 'yen' is 'HYENA'.
'and' is the link.
(Other definitions for hyena that I've seen before include "Dog-like nocturnal mammal of Africa and southern Asia" , "Flesh-eating dog with eerie laugh" , "Creature" , "Wild animal" , "one to laugh" .)