Shortage of drink in a vessel (6)
I believe the answer is:
ullage
'shortage' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
I don't understand how the rest of the clue works.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for ullage that I've seen before include "Amount by which a liquid container falls short of being full" , "dregs" , "Loss by evaporation or leakage" , "The amount by which a bottle falls short of being full" , "shortfall" .)