A little man, I'm a lowly beast (6)
I believe the answer is:
animal
'beast' is the definition.
('animal' can be a synonym of 'beast')
'a little man i'm a lowly' is the wordplay.
'a little' indicates a hidden word.
'ANIMAL' is hidden in the letters of 'man im a lowly'.
(Other definitions for animal that I've seen before include "Such as 13 ac" , "Living organism characterised by voluntary movement" , "something in the zoo?" , "Animate being" , "It shares the world with vegetable and mineral" .)