Low life cut in half radish (5)
I believe the answer is:
mooli
'radish' is the definition.
(mooli is a type of radish)
'low life cut in half' is the wordplay.
'low' becomes 'moo' (both can mean to make a cow noise).
'cut in half' means to take half the letters.
'life' with half the letters taken is 'li'.
'moo'+'li'='MOOLI'
(Other definitions for mooli that I've seen before include "Radish-like root" , "root vegetable" , "Large white radish" .)