Hereafter lose heart with time on one's hands (4)
I believe the answer is:
free
'one's hands' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both groups as well as being singular nouns.
Maybe you can see an association between them that I can't see?
'hereafter lose heart with time' is the wordplay.
'hereafter' becomes 'future' (synonyms).
'lose heart' suggests removing the centre (I've seen 'losing heart' mean this).
'with' indicates putting letters inside.
'time' becomes 're' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'future' with its centre taken out is 'fe'.
'fe' enclosing 're' is 'FREE'.
'on' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for free that I've seen before include "Not confined" , "Reef (anag.)" , "Complimentary" , "As cheap as can be!" , "Type of tenure" .)