We sat around - hard work (5)
I believe the answer is:
sweat
'hard work' is the definition.
(synonyms)
'we sat around' is the wordplay.
'around' is an insertion indicator.
'we' going within 'sat' is 'SWEAT'.
(Other definitions for sweat that I've seen before include "Soldier" , "It's hard work" , "Toil" , "Waste (anag.)" , "(Of argument) intense" .)