Darling times entertaining a bishop (4)
I believe the answer is:
baby
'darling' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'times entertaining a bishop' is the wordplay.
'times' becomes 'by' (I've seen this in other clues).
'entertaining' indicates putting letters inside.
'bishop' becomes 'b' (abbreviation used in chess).
'a'+'b'='ab'
'by' placed around 'ab' is 'BABY'.
(Other definitions for baby that I've seen before include "Darling" , "One born" , "Pet project" , "Girlfriend" , "needing dummy?" .)