Formal piety in order to avoid having to take action (4,3,4)
I believe the answer is:
play for time
'avoid having to take action' is the definition.
I know nothing about this answer so I cannot tell whether this works.
'formal piety in order' is the wordplay.
'in order' indicates anagramming the letters (the letters in a new order).
'formal'+'piety'='formalpiety'
'formalpiety' anagrammed gives 'PLAY FOR TIME'.
'to' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for play for time that I've seen before include "(To) delay in the hope of future advantage" , "stall" , "Delay action" , "Delay in case something improves" , "Seek a temporal advantage" .)