Relief offered by cutting canvas carrier short (4)
I believe the answer is:
ease
'relief' is the definition.
(I know that relief can be written as ease)
'cutting canvas carrier short' is the wordplay.
'cutting canvas' becomes 'eas' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'carrier' becomes 'el' (el is a kind of carrier).
'short' means to remove the last letter.
'el' with its last letter removed is 'e'.
'eas'+'e'='EASE'
'offered by' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for ease that I've seen before include "Absence of hardship" , "Freedom from worry" , "Comfort or freedom from difficulty" , "Make less hard" , "State of relaxation or rest" .)