Caedmon’s central character in Old English verse (3)
I believe the answer is:
ode
'verse' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'caedmon's central character in old english' is the wordplay.
'central character' means to look at the middle letters.
'in' is an insertion indicator.
'old english' becomes 'oe'.
The middle of 'caedmon' is 'd'.
'd' inserted inside 'oe' is 'ODE'.
(Other definitions for ode that I've seen before include "(Railway)system" , "- - to a 12 Urn" , "Poem expressing noble feelings" , "Verse form" , "Poem in praise of doe" .)