We run into a place? Kind of (2,2,4)
I believe the answer is:
as it were
'kind of' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'we run into a place?' is the wordplay.
'run' becomes 'r' (cricket abbreviation).
'into' indicates putting letters inside.
'place?' becomes 'site' (synonyms).
'we'+'r'='wer'
'a'+'site'='asite'
'wer' inserted into 'asite' is 'AS IT WERE'.
(Other definitions for as it were that I've seen before include "you may say" , "In a manner of speaking" , "In a kind of way" , "Just like if really so" , "you might say" .)