Surprisingly sage at times (4)
I believe the answer is:
ages
'times' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'surprisingly sage' is the wordplay.
'surprisingly' indicates anagramming the letters.
'sage' is an anagram of 'AGES'.
'at' acts as a 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)" .)