We would surround European drip (4)
I believe the answer is:
weed
'drip' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'we would surround european' is the wordplay.
'we would' becomes 'we'd'.
'surround' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'european' becomes 'E' (abbreviation e.g. EU).
'wed' enclosing 'e' is 'WEED'.
(Other definitions for weed that I've seen before include "Hoe to remove it" , "Ineffectual person" , "Useless plant - useless person" , "Intrusive plant; weak person" , "Got rid of water" .)