Daughter leaving waterside in distress, so to speak (2,2,4)
I believe the answer is:
as it were
'so to speak' is the definition.
(synonyms)
'daughter leaving waterside in distress' is the wordplay.
'daughter' becomes 'd' (genealogical abbreviation).
'leaving' is a deletion indicator.
'in distress' is an anagram indicator.
'waterside' with 'd' removed is 'watersie'.
'watersie' with letters rearranged gives 'AS IT WERE'.
(Other definitions for as it were that I've seen before include "In a manner of speaking" , "Historically ungrammatical" , "So to speak" , "In a kind of way" , "you might say" .)