Poor British goods breaking too soon (8)
I believe the answer is:
beggarly
'poor' is the definition.
(similar in meaning)
'british goods breaking too soon' is the wordplay.
'british' becomes 'b' (abbreviation e.g. in 'BBC').
'goods' becomes 'gg' (an abbreviation for good written twice).
'breaking' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'too soon' becomes 'early' (earlier than required).
'gg' placed into 'early' is 'eggarly'.
'b'+'eggarly'='BEGGARLY'
(Other definitions for beggarly that I've seen before include "needy" , "Meagre, ungenerous" , "Very mean, poor" .)