Army officer in fine house (7)
I believe the answer is:
shelter
'house' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'army officer in fine' is the wordplay.
'army officer' becomes 'lt' (I've seen this in other clues).
'in' is an insertion indicator.
'fine' becomes 'sheer' (I've seen this before**).
'lt' put into 'sheer' is 'SHELTER'.
(Other definitions for shelter that I've seen before include "retreat" , "Protection from bad weather or danger" , "Sanctuary; protect" , "Protective structure" , "Covering that provides protection from the weather" .)