Pay bridge partners about a thousand (4)
I believe the answer is:
wage
'pay' is the definition.
(I know that pay can be written as wage)
'bridge partners about a thousand' is the wordplay.
'bridge partners' becomes 'we' (West and East are players in the card game bridge).
'about' indicates putting letters inside.
'thousand' becomes 'g' (synonyms).
'a'+'g'='ag'
'we' enclosing 'ag' is 'WAGE'.
(Other definitions for wage that I've seen before include "Pay (enough to live on?)" , "Money earned" , "Carry on - remuneration" , "Earnings - carry on" , "Amount earned" .)