Time to embrace hooligan (4)
I believe the answer is:
thug
'hooligan' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'time to embrace' is the wordplay.
'time' becomes 't'.
'to embrace' becomes 'hug' ('hug' can be a synonym of 'embrace').
't'+'hug'='THUG'
(Other definitions for thug that I've seen before include "Violent criminal" , "Violent lout" , "violent gang member" , "Violent ruffian" , "Violent hoodlum" .)