Lay to rest, calling for breather (12)
I believe the answer is:
intermission
'breather' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'lay to rest calling' is the wordplay.
'lay to rest' becomes 'inter' (synonyms).
'calling' becomes 'mission' (I've seen this before).
'inter'+'mission'='INTERMISSION'
'for' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for intermission that I've seen before include "Theatre's half-time" , "Entr'acte" , "Interval" , "Break; respite" , "Pause, break" .)