It made a lot of noise for nothing, being said to have a sore tail (8)
I believe the answer is:
dinosaur
'it made a lot of noise' is the definition.
The definition suggests a singular noun which matches the answer.
'nothing being said to have a sore tail' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'nothing' could be 'no' (similar in meaning) and 'no' is located in the answer.
an anagram of 'said' is 'disa' which is within the remaining letters.
The remaining letters 'ur' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't understand.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
'for' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for dinosaur that I've seen before include "Old-fashioned type" , "Extinct monster like Barney, children's TV pal" , "Extinct reptilian animal" , "Prehistoric monster from Jurassic era" , "Reptile is around, not really" .)