Dish only half up - and tardily! (5)
I believe the answer is:
plate
'dish' is the definition.
(plate is a kind of dish)
'only half up and tardily' is the wordplay.
'only half' indicates taking half.
'and' says to put letters next to each other.
'tardily' becomes 'late' (synonyms).
'up' with half the letters taken is 'p'.
'p'+'late'='PLATE'
(Other definitions for plate that I've seen before include "South American river" , "Illustration on special paper in a book" , "Flower" , "Thin sheet, as of glass" , "Helping of food" .)