Starved of affection, star, losing head, left half-finished edition (7)
I believe the answer is:
unloved
'starved of affection' is the definition.
The answer and definition are not the same part of speech. However, past participle verbs and adjectives sometimes define each other.
'star losing head left half-finished edition' is the wordplay.
'star' becomes 'sun' (the Sun is a star).
'losing head' means to remove the first letter.
'left half finished edition' becomes 'loved' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'sun' with its first letter taken off is 'un'.
'un'+'loved'='UNLOVED'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for unloved that I've seen before include "Liked greatly by nobody" , "Not cared for" , "Regarded with affection by no one" .)