Yankee meeting Spike in time (4)
I believe the answer is:
year
'time' is the definition.
(I know that time can be written as year)
'yankee meeting spike' is the wordplay.
'yankee' becomes 'Y' (phonetic alphabet: alpha, bravo, charlie etc.).
'meeting' says to put letters next to each other.
'spike' becomes 'ear' (spike is another term for an ear of grain).
'y'+'ear'='YEAR'
'in' is the link.
(Other definitions for year that I've seen before include "Orbital period" , "Complete cycle of seasons" , "12 months" , "One orbit round the sun" , "1961?" .)