Bar university cutting lead (3)
I believe the answer is:
pub
'bar' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'university cutting lead' is the wordplay.
'university' becomes 'u'.
'cutting' indicates putting letters inside (some letters cut their way into a word).
'lead' becomes 'pb' (Pb is the chemical symbol for lead).
'u' inserted into 'pb' is 'PUB'.
(Other definitions for pub that I've seen before include "Boozer" , "A familiar hostelry" , "Place to drink" , "Alehouse" , "Tavern, hostelry" .)