Quietly get a French joke (3)
I believe the answer is:
pun
'joke' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'quietly get a french' is the wordplay.
'quietly' becomes 'p' (p for piano and quiet).
'get' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'a french' becomes 'un' ('a' in French).
'p'+'un'='PUN'
(Other definitions for pun that I've seen before include "A play on words, not really wit" , "Double entendre" , "joke" , "A play on words, may be funny" , "Form of wordplay" .)