“Hello, girl,” said the beast (5)
I believe the answer is:
hyena
'the beast' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'hello girl said' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'girl' could be 'ena' (I've seen this in other clues) and 'ena' is located in the answer.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for hyena that I've seen before include "Carnivore with sloping body" , "Laughing mammal?" , "Wild mammal" , "He's sometimes spotted" , "Its howl sounds like laughter" .)