Article taken from grubby relative (5)
I believe the answer is:
uncle
'relative' is the definition.
(uncle is a kind of relative)
'article taken from grubby' is the wordplay.
'article' becomes 'an' (indefinite article).
'taken from' suggests deleting specific letters.
'grubby' becomes 'unclean' ('unclean' can be similar in meaning to 'grubby').
'unclean' with 'an' removed is 'UNCLE'.
(Other definitions for uncle that I've seen before include "Family relative" , "older relative" , "Slang name for pawnbroker" , ". . . . . Sam, the US government" , "One receiving pawn" .)