Weave mine around French article (5)
I believe the answer is:
plait
'weave' is the definition.
(plaiting is a kind of weaving)
'mine around french article' is the wordplay.
'mine' becomes 'pit' (down the pit).
'around' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'french article' becomes 'la' (definite article in French).
'pit' placed around 'la' is 'PLAIT'.
(Other definitions for plait that I've seen before include "Woven length of hair" , "Braided hair" , "Interwoven length of hair" , "Hairdo formed by braiding" , "Stranded piece of hair" .)