Poor attempt to follow a friend (6)
I believe the answer is:
paltry
'poor' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'attempt to follow a friend' is the wordplay.
'attempt' becomes 'try' (synonyms).
'to follow' says to put letters next to each other.
'a friend' becomes 'pal' (pal is a kind of friend).
'try' after 'pal' is 'PALTRY'.
(Other definitions for paltry that I've seen before include "Minor, insignificant" , "Trivial, comtemptible" , "Small and mean" , "Mean - trifling" , "Mean, petty" .)