Call for assistance initially over working indifferently (2-2)
I believe the answer is:
so-so
'indifferently' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'call for assistance initially over working' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'call' could be 'sos' (I have seen 'Call of distress ' mean 'sos' so perhaps 'call' could also mean 'sos') and 'sos' is present in the answer.
'over' could be 'o' (cricket abbreviation) and 'o' is found in the answer.
This accounts for all the letters.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for so-so that I've seen before include "'Passable, middling (2-2)'" , "Of middling quality" , "Of average quality" , "Mediocre" , "just about adequate" .)