Benign fellow put in the shade (6)
I believe the answer is:
humane
'benign' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'fellow put in the shade' is the wordplay.
'fellow' becomes 'man' (fellow can mean a man).
'put in' indicates putting letters inside.
'the shade' becomes 'hue' (both can mean a colour).
'man' put into 'hue' is 'HUMANE'.
(Other definitions for humane that I've seen before include "Kind and liberal" , "Showing compassion for animals" , "Kind and civilised" , "Compassionate, benevolent" , "Benevolent and merciful" .)