Shabby time in gallery with socialist (8)
I believe the answer is:
tattered
'shabby' is the definition.
(synonyms)
'time in gallery with socialist' is the wordplay.
'time' becomes 't' (abbreviation).
'in' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'gallery' becomes 'tate' (Tate Modern, Tate Britain etc).
'with' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'socialist' becomes 'red' (red can informally mean a socialist).
't' placed into 'tate' is 'tatte'.
'tatte'+'red'='TATTERED'
(Other definitions for tattered that I've seen before include "Worn to shreds" , "Ragged and threadbare" , "In poor condition" , "Torn irregularly like scarecrow's clothes" , "Old and torn" .)