Getting on after the man, contrived to (4)
I believe the answer is:
aged
'getting on' is the definition.
(getting on can mean getting older)
'the man contrived to' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'man' could be 'ed' (short for Edward) and 'ed' is found in the answer.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
'after' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for aged that I've seen before include "Geriatric" , "way over the hill" , "Matured like wine in wood" , "Antiquated" , "Senior" .)