Father figure's carriage (7)
I believe the answer is:
freight
'carriage' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'father figure's' is the wordplay.
'father' becomes 'fr' (abbreviation as in a priest's title).
'figure' becomes 'eight' (eight is a number).
'fr'+'eight'='FREIGHT'
(Other definitions for freight that I've seen before include "Charge for carrying" , "Consignment" , "Goods in transit" , "Transport of bulk goods" , "Cargo, goods transported" .)