Visibly upset, losing face in rebuke (6)
I believe the answer is:
earful
'rebuke' is the definition.
(I know that earful is a type of rebuke)
'visibly upset losing face' is the wordplay.
'visibly upset' becomes 'tearful' (I've seen this before).
'losing face' means to remove the first letter.
'tearful' with its initial letter taken off is 'EARFUL'.
'in' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for earful that I've seen before include "Loud blast - angry reprimand" , "Volley of abuse, criticism" , "A telling-off" , "Ticking-off" , "Spoken reprimand" .)