Men shown up in conversations, poor things (6)
I believe the answer is:
troops
'men' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'shown up in conversations poor things' is the wordplay.
'shown up' shows that the letters should be reversed in order.
'in' indicates the answer is hidden within the clue.
'spoort' is hidden within 'conversations poor things'.
'spoort' back-to-front is 'TROOPS'.
(Other definitions for troops that I've seen before include "Soldiers, armed forces" , "Military forces" , "Groups of soldiers" , "Bodies of soldiers" , "Army" .)