Surprisingly sage at times (4)
I believe the answer is:
ages
'times' is the definition.
(age is a kind of time)
'surprisingly sage' is the wordplay.
'surprisingly' indicates anagramming the letters (a surprising ordering of the letters).
'sage' anagrammed gives 'AGES'.
'at' is the link.
(Other definitions for ages that I've seen before include "Historic periods or prolonged time" , "Awfully long time" , "Grows old like sage" , "Matures" , "Sage (anag)" .)