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' inserted into 'sat' is 'SWEAT'.
(Other definitions for sweat that I've seen before include "Soldier" , "It's hard work" , "Toil" , "Waste (anag.)" , "(Of argument) intense" .)