Silly pelican ingesting tar helpless (9)
I believe the answer is:
incapable
'helpless' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'silly pelican ingesting tar' is the wordplay.
'silly' indicates an anagram.
'ingesting' indicates putting letters inside.
'tar' becomes 'ab'.
'pelican' is an anagram of 'incaple'.
'incaple' enclosing 'ab' is 'INCAPABLE'.
(Other definitions for incapable that I've seen before include "Hopelessly drunk; incompetent" , "hopeless" , "Possibly hammered" , "Unable, incompetent" , "Useless" .)