Put out smoke at first with water container (4)
I believe the answer is:
stub
'put out' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'smoke at first with water container' is the wordplay.
'at first' says to take the initial letters.
'with' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'water container' becomes 'tub' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
The initial letter of 'smoke' is 's'.
's'+'tub'='STUB'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for stub that I've seen before include "Blunt end" , "Broken-off end" , "Strike (a toe, say) against something hard" , "Extinguish the cigarette on a counterfoil" , "Wee bit of pencil, eg," .)