Very short and round, not entirely pleasant — a woman (8)
I believe the answer is:
veronica
'woman' is the definition.
'very short and round not entirely pleasant a' is the wordplay.
'very short' becomes 'ver' (I can't justify this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'and' becomes 'too'.
'round' indicates the central letters.
'not entirely' means to remove the last letter.
'pleasant' becomes 'nice' ('nice' is associated in meaning with 'pleasant').
The middle letter of 'too' is 'o'.
'nice' with its last letter taken off is 'nic'.
'ver'+'o'+'nic'+'a'='VERONICA'
(Other definitions for veronica that I've seen before include "Girl" , "-- Lake, US film actress" , "Lady" , "Saint who wiped Christ's face on the Via Dolorosa" , "Plant with spikes of blue or purple" .)