Damage caused in time by sorely tried men (9)
I believe the answer is:
detriment
'damage' is the definition.
(I know that detriment is a type of damage)
'time by sorely tried men' is the wordplay.
'time' becomes 't' (abbreviation).
'by' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'sorely' is an anagram indicator.
'tried' with letters rearranged gives 'detri'.
'detri'+'men'='detrimen'
't' put after 'detrimen' is 'DETRIMENT'.
'caused in' acts as a 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 detriment that I've seen before include "State of being harmed or damaged" , "Possible loss" , "hurt" , "Harm, damage" , "Damage, loss" .)