Expression wears thin for listeners (6)
I believe the answer is:
phrase
'expression' is the definition.
(phrase is a kind of expression)
'wears thin for listeners' is the wordplay.
'wears thin' becomes 'frays'.
'for listeners' shows a homophone (sound like) (I've seen 'for Listener' mean this).
'frays' sounds like 'PHRASE'.
(Other definitions for phrase that I've seen before include "Sequence of words" , "Sentence unit" , "Set of words for sherpa" , "Group of words within a sentence" , "Short expression" .)