Brief respite with time for papa to recover (8)
I believe the answer is:
retrieve
'to recover' is the definition.
(synonyms)
'brief respite with time' is the wordplay.
'brief respite' becomes 'rieve' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'with' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'time' becomes 'ret' (I've seen this in other clues).
'rieve' put after 'ret' is 'RETRIEVE'.
'for papa' is the link.
This may not be correct. Some or all of it may be part of another bit of the clue.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for retrieve that I've seen before include "Search for and discover" , "Rescue" , "Get or bring back something" , "Get back (lost item)" , "Win back" .)