Reluctant to lose a few lines (5)
I believe the answer is:
verse
'few lines' is the definition.
'reluctant to lose a' is the wordplay.
'reluctant' becomes 'averse' (I've seen this before).
'to lose' indicates named letters should be taken away.
'averse' with 'a' removed is 'VERSE'.
(Other definitions for verse that I've seen before include "Poetry - subdivision of the Bible" , "literary offering" , "Metrical text" , "few lines of writing?" , "Poems" .)