Scoff accepting head of state's direction (4)
I believe the answer is:
east
'direction' is the definition.
(east is a kind of direction)
'scoff accepting head of state's' is the wordplay.
'scoff' becomes 'eat' (I've seen this before).
'accepting' indicates putting letters inside.
'head of' suggests taking the first letters.
The first letter of 'states' is 's'.
'eat' enclosing 's' is 'EAST'.
(Other definitions for east that I've seen before include "Bearing of 90 degrees" , "Airport near Derby" , "Bridge player" , "Bidder after North (bridge)" , "Direction of the rising sun" .)