Household troops, at the time (6)
I believe the answer is:
menage
'household' is the definition.
('menage' can be a synonym of 'household')
'troops at the time' is the wordplay.
'troops' becomes 'men' (I've seen this in other clues).
'at' says to put letters next to each other.
'the time' becomes 'age' (age is a kind of time).
'men'+'age'='MENAGE'
(Other definitions for menage that I've seen before include "A household, sometimes naughtily a trois" , "live together" , "Social unit living together" , "family group" , "Persons of household" .)