Fair number wanting bit of work recently (4,3)
I believe the answer is:
just now
'recently' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'fair number wanting bit of work' is the wordplay.
'fair' becomes 'just' (Synonym).
'number' becomes 'no' (abbreviation).
'wanting' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'bit of' indicates taking the first letters.
The first letter of 'work' is 'w'.
'just'+'no'+'w'='JUST NOW'
(Other definitions for just now that I've seen before include "Very recently" , "A moment ago" , "a little while ago" , "short time ago" .)