Shot half-cut emir put in a dry pint (7)
I believe the answer is:
attempt
'shot' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'half-cut emir put in a dry pint' is the wordplay.
'half cut' means to take half the letters.
'put in' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'dry' becomes 'tt' (abbreviation for teetotal).
'pint' becomes 'pt'.
'emir' with half the letters taken is 'em'.
'a'+'tt'+'pt'='attpt'
'em' put within 'attpt' is 'ATTEMPT'.
(Other definitions for attempt that I've seen before include "Essay" , "Try, make an effort" , "Shot" , "Embark on, try" , "bid to kill someone" .)