Fragmentary calm heard over dinner, maybe (9)
I believe the answer is:
piecemeal
'fragmentary' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'calm heard over dinner maybe' is the wordplay.
'calm' becomes 'peace' (I've seen this before).
'heard' indicates a 'sounds like' (homophone) clue.
'over' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'dinner maybe' becomes 'meal' (I've seen this in other clues).
'peace' sounds like 'piece'.
'piece'+'meal'='PIECEMEAL'
(Other definitions for piecemeal that I've seen before include "taken bit by bit" , "Claim epee in gradual unsystematic way" , "Gradually, little by little" , "step by step" , "A bit at a time" .)