Insignificant attempt to support friend (6)
I believe the answer is:
paltry
'insignificant' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'attempt to support friend' is the wordplay.
'attempt' becomes 'try' (I've seen this before).
'to support' means one lot of letters go next to another (in a down clue, some letters hold others up).
'friend' becomes 'pal' (pal is a kind of friend).
'try' after 'pal' is 'PALTRY'.
(Other definitions for paltry that I've seen before include "Minor, insignificant" , "Trivial, comtemptible" , "Meagre; petty, trivial" , "Mean, petty" , "Trival, Inconsequential" .)