Play around and perversely earn DPhil (9)
I believe the answer is:
philander
'play around' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'perversely earn dphil' is the wordplay.
'perversely' is an anagram indicator.
'earn'+'dphil'='earndphil'
'earndphil' with letters rearranged gives 'PHILANDER'.
'and' is the link.
(Other definitions for philander that I've seen before include "Play around" , "Womanise" , "Have an affair" , "Flirt, chase women" , "Have affairs" .)