Little time followed by long year (6)
I believe the answer is:
titchy
'little' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'time followed by long year' is the wordplay.
'time' becomes 't' (abbreviation).
'followed by' says to put letters next to each other.
'long' becomes 'itch' (to long or itch for something is to desire it).
'year' becomes 'y'.
't'+'itch'+'y'='TITCHY'
(Other definitions for titchy that I've seen before include "Very short" , "Little" , "Very small" , "Tiny" .)