US city inadequate in silver (no specific item) (8)
I believe the answer is:
anything
'no specific item' is the definition.
'us city inadequate in silver' is the wordplay.
'us city' becomes 'ny' (I've seen this in other clues).
'inadequate' becomes 'thin'.
'in' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'silver' becomes 'ag' ('Ag' can be a synonym of 'silver').
'ny'+'thin'='nythin'
'nythin' put within 'ag' is 'ANYTHING'.
(Other definitions for anything that I've seen before include "- - Goes (mus.)" , "------- Goes, Cole Porter musical" , "Aught" , "Musical - statement of permissiveness" , "Musical by 14" .)