Man holding spades is hopeful (4)
I believe the answer is:
rosy
'hopeful' is the definition.
('rosy' can be a synonym of 'hopeful')
'man holding spades' is the wordplay.
'man' becomes 'roy' (I've seen this before**).
'holding' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'spades' becomes 's' (abbreviation in card games).
'roy' enclosing 's' is 'ROSY'.
'is' is the link.
(Other definitions for rosy that I've seen before include "Hopeful; blushing" , "Pink; promising" , "Promising; hopeful" , "lady" , "Of the future, promising like flower" .)