Shy character keen to be involved in disorder (8)
I believe the answer is:
meekness
'shy character' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both human attributes as well as being singular nouns.
Maybe there's an association between them I don't understand?
'keen to be involved in disorder' is the wordplay.
'to be involved' indicates anagramming the letters (involved can mean confusing or complex).
'in' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'disorder' becomes 'mess' (mess is a kind of disorder).
'keen' anagrammed gives 'ekne'.
'ekne' inserted inside 'mess' is 'MEEKNESS'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for meekness that I've seen before include "Submissive humility" , "Modesty, humility" , "Deference" , "Submissive quality" , "Submissive nature" .)