With the return "Real thug," dissolves into giggles (8)
I believe the answer is:
laughter
'with the return real' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I don't understand how one could define the other.
'thug dissolves into giggles' is the wordplay.
'dissolves' indicates anagramming the letters.
'into' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'giggles' becomes 'laer' (I can't justify this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'thug' is an anagram of 'ught'.
'ught' inserted inside 'laer' is 'LAUGHTER'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for laughter that I've seen before include "A manifestation of joy" , "Howling" , "The expression of lively amusement" , "The sound of mirth" , "end of the comedian" .)