Very great deprivation when cutting fuel (8)
I believe the answer is:
colossal
'very great' is the definition.
'colossal' can be an answer for 'great' (I've seen this before). I'm not sure about the 'very' bit.
'deprivation when cutting fuel' is the wordplay.
'deprivation' becomes 'loss' (synonyms).
'when cutting' means one lot of letters goes inside another (some letters cut their way into a word).
'fuel' becomes 'coal' (coal is a kind of fuel).
'loss' inserted within 'coal' is 'COLOSSAL'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for colossal that I've seen before include "Mammoth" , "Giant" , "Great" , "Enormous, gigantic" , "So locals may be huge" .)