Measure criticism after cart overturned (9)
I believe the answer is:
yardstick
'measure' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'criticism after cart overturned' is the wordplay.
'criticism' becomes 'stick' (I've seen this before**).
'after' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'cart' becomes 'dray' (a cart without sides for delivering heavy loads).
'overturned' shows that the letters should be reversed in order.
'dray' reversed gives 'yard'.
'stick' after 'yard' is 'YARDSTICK'.
(Other definitions for yardstick that I've seen before include "Standard base for comparison" , "General measure for comparison" , "Three-foot rod as standard of comparison" , "Measuring rod" , "Ruler or tape, three feet long" .)