A lot of lions were nosy, so we hear (5)
I believe the answer is:
pride
'nosy so we hear' is the definition.
I can't judge whether this definition defines the answer.
'a lot of lions' is the wordplay.
'a lot of' means to remove the last letter (a lot of but not all of the word).
'lions' becomes 'prides' (I've seen this before).
'prides' with its final letter removed is 'PRIDE'.
'were' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for pride that I've seen before include "conceit" , "sense of satisfaction" , "group of animals" , "They say it comes before a fall" , "''. . . . . goeth before a fall''" .)