Eastern female entertained by tedious person earlier (6)
I believe the answer is:
before
'earlier' is the definition.
('before' can be a synonym of 'earlier')
'eastern female entertained by tedious person' is the wordplay.
'eastern' becomes 'e'.
'female' becomes 'f' (abbreviation).
'entertained by' indicates putting letters inside (I've seen this in other clues).
'tedious person' becomes 'bore' (I've seen this before**).
'e'+'f'='ef'
'ef' put inside 'bore' is 'BEFORE'.
(Other definitions for before that I've seen before include "Previously ? in front" , "In advance" , "On a previous occasion" , "In sight of" , "In front - earlier" .)