Father almost completely broken apart by split from mother? (8)
I believe the answer is:
parental
'mother?' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'father almost completely' is the wordplay.
'father' becomes 'parent' (I have seen 'A father ' mean 'parent' so perhaps 'father' could also mean 'parent').
'almost completely' becomes 'al' (I've seen this in other clues).
'parent'+'al'='PARENTAL'
'broken apart by split from' acts as a link.
This may not be right. Some or all of it may be part of another bit of the clue.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for parental that I've seen before include "of father, perhaps" , "of some older relatives" , "Relating to mother and father" , "of old man and woman" , "Of mother and/or father" .)