Virtually hot and cross after a practical joke (4)
I believe the answer is:
hoax
'practical joke' is the definition.
(practical joke can mean a hoax or trick)
'virtually hot and cross after a' is the wordplay.
'virtually' means to remove the last letter (all but the last letter).
'and' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'cross' becomes 'x' (X is cross-shaped).
'after' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'hot' with its last letter taken away is 'ho'.
'x' after 'a' is 'ax'.
'ho' put next to 'ax' is 'HOAX'.
(Other definitions for hoax that I've seen before include "Spoof" , "Kid" , "Imposture" , "Malicious act" , "A fraud or deception" .)