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' means to take half the letters.
'and' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'tardily' becomes 'late' (synonyms).
'up' cut in half 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" .)