Measure Society darling overturned (4)
I believe the answer is:
step
'measure' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'society darling overturned' is the wordplay.
'society' becomes 's' (common abbreviation in names of organisations).
'darling' becomes 'pet' ('pet' can be a synonym of 'darling').
'overturned' is a reversal indicator.
'pet' back-to-front is 'tep'.
's'+'tep'='STEP'
(Other definitions for step that I've seen before include "Stride" , "Gradation" , "Ladder rung; pace" , "little walk?" , "Set foot down on pest" .)