Short row about nothing (3)
I believe the answer is:
nil
'nothing' is the definition.
(eg nil is zero in football)
'short row about' is the wordplay.
'short' means to remove the last letter.
'row' becomes 'line' (as in a row of things).
'about' is a reversal indicator.
'line' with its last letter removed is 'lin'.
'lin' in reverse letter order is 'NIL'.
(Other definitions for nil that I've seen before include "Nix, nada, nothing" , "Latin zero" , "duck" , "Zero, no score" , "Nothing - in Latin" .)