Wear ties knotted in a way (2,2,4)
I believe the answer is:
as it were
'in a way' is the definition.
(I've seen this in another clue)
'wear ties knotted' is the wordplay.
'knotted' indicates anagramming the letters.
'wear'+'ties'='wearties'
'wearties' with letters rearranged gives 'AS IT WERE'.
(Other definitions for as it were that I've seen before include "So to speak" , "In sort of" , "In a manner of speaking" , "you might say" , "Seemingly" .)