Man went down with old wife (6)
I believe the answer is:
fellow
'man' is the definition.
(I know that fellow is a type of man)
'went down with old wife' is the wordplay.
'went down' becomes 'fell' (fell over).
'with' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'old' becomes 'o' (common abbreviation eg in OE for Old English).
'wife' becomes 'w' (abbreviation).
'fell'+'o'+'w'='FELLOW'
(Other definitions for fellow that I've seen before include "Kind of associate, may be a traveller with communism" , "Boy or man" , "Colleague" , "Neglected child" , "Relating to a person in the same situation as oneself" .)