Surface cut short ahead (4,2)
I believe the answer is:
crop up
'surface' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'cut short ahead' is the wordplay.
'cut short' becomes 'crop' ('crop' can be a synonym of 'cut short').
'ahead' becomes 'up' ('up' can be similar in meaning to 'ahead').
'crop'+'up'='CROP UP'
(Other definitions for crop up that I've seen before include "Occur, arise" , "Appear unexpectedly" , "Occur unexpectedly - like harvest?" , "Occur by chance - like harvest?" , "Happen" .)