Soak poets at sea, as it were (2,2,5)
I believe the answer is:
so to speak
'as it were' is the definition.
(synonyms)
'soak poets at sea' is the wordplay.
'at sea' indicates an anagram.
'soak'+'poets'='soakpoets'
'soakpoets' with letters rearranged gives 'SO TO SPEAK'.
(Other definitions for so to speak that I've seen before include "If one may use that expression" , "In a way" , "as one might say" .)