Racketeer shed tear, unusually, by little river (5)
I believe the answer is:
creek
'little river' is the definition.
'creek' can be an answer for 'river' (thesaurus). I'm unsure of the 'little' bit.
'racketeer shed tear unusually' is the wordplay.
'shed' suggests deleting specific letters.
'unusually' indicates anagramming the letters.
'racketeer' with 'tear' taken away is 'ckeer'.
'ckeer' with letters rearranged gives 'CREEK'.
'by' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for creek that I've seen before include "Narrow inlet from the sea" , "Small inlet(no place to be up!)" , "Up the .....; in difficulties, and wet?" , "Narrow bay" , "Natural stream" .)