Time to embrace violent ruffian (4)
I believe the answer is:
thug
'violent ruffian' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'time to embrace' is the wordplay.
'time' becomes 't' (abbreviation).
'to embrace' becomes 'hug' (synonyms).
't'+'hug'='THUG'
(Other definitions for thug that I've seen before include "Violent hoodlum" , "violent gang member" , "violent man" , "undesirable character" , "Indian strangler - criminal" .)