Dreary game interrupted by dancing reel (9)
I believe the answer is:
cheerless
'dreary' is the definition.
('cheerless' can be similar in meaning to 'dreary')
'game interrupted by dancing reel' is the wordplay.
'game' becomes 'chess' (chess is a kind of game**).
'interrupted by' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'dancing' is an anagram indicator.
'reel' anagrammed gives 'eerl'.
'chess' going around 'eerl' is 'CHEERLESS'.
(Other definitions for cheerless that I've seen before include "Bleak" , "Miserable" , "Gloomy, depressing" , "Dreary" , "not hip?" .)