Save first of kids in scrape (4)
I believe the answer is:
bark
'scrape' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'save first of kids' is the wordplay.
'save' becomes 'bar' (I've seen this before).
'first of' says to take the initial letters.
The initial letter of 'kids' is 'k'.
'bar'+'k'='BARK'
'in' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for bark that I've seen before include "coverage of the Oaks?" , "Outer part of tree" , "Tree trunk's outer layer" , "Canine noise" , "Hardly a sound from Tom" .)