Stop work to phone Italian lady with Yankee (4,2,1,3)
I believe the answer is:
call it a day
'stop work' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'phone italian lady with yankee' is the wordplay.
'phone' becomes 'call' ('call' can be a synonym of 'phone').
'italian' becomes 'it'.
'lady with' becomes 'ada' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'yankee' becomes 'y' (phonetic alphabet: alpha, bravo, charlie etc.).
'call'+'it'+'ada'+'y'='CALL IT A DAY'
'to' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for call it a day that I've seen before include "Abandon work for now" , "announce decision to quit" , "pack up" , "Set the style for a 24-hour period" , "sign off" .)