Fame of criminal sergeant loathes ultimately (9)
I believe the answer is:
greatness
'fame' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'criminal sergeant loathes ultimately' is the wordplay.
'criminal' indicates anagramming the letters.
'ultimately' indicates one should take the final letters.
The last letter of 'loathes' is 's'.
'sergeant' with letters rearranged gives 'greatnes'.
'greatnes'+'s'='GREATNESS'
'of' is the link.
(Other definitions for greatness that I've seen before include "Fame and importance" , "Some achieve it; it's thrust upon others" , "Nobility" , "celebrity" , "Pre-eminence; high station" .)