Play shortened a bit (4)
I believe the answer is:
dram
'a bit' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'play shortened' is the wordplay.
'play' becomes 'drama' ('drama' can be a synonym of 'play').
'shortened' means to remove the last letter.
'drama' with its last letter taken off is 'DRAM'.
(Other definitions for dram that I've seen before include "Wee drink" , "Pick-me-up" , "Small drink of spirits" , "Tot of whisky" , "slug" .)