Tale ends in stormy sea meeting sailors (4)
I believe the answer is:
yarn
'tale' is the definition.
(synonyms)
'ends in stormy sea meeting sailors' is the wordplay.
'ends in' indicates one should take the final letters (I've seen 'end in' mean this).
'meeting' says to put letters next to each other.
'sailors' becomes 'rn' (abbreviation for Royal Navy).
The final letters of 'stormy sea' are 'ya'.
'ya'+'rn'='YARN'
(Other definitions for yarn that I've seen before include "Rambling story" , "Rope" , "Rambling tale" , "Cord of twisted fibres, wool say" , "Anecdote" .)