Former partner, common, keeping roughly free (9)
I believe the answer is:
extricate
'free' is the definition.
(extricating is a kind of freeing)
'former partner common keeping roughly' is the wordplay.
'former partner' becomes 'ex' (an ex-partner).
'common' becomes 'trite' (trite can mean common or cliched).
'keeping' indicates putting letters inside.
'roughly' becomes 'ca' (abbreviation for circa).
'trite' enclosing 'ca' is 'tricate'.
'ex'+'tricate'='EXTRICATE'
(Other definitions for extricate that I've seen before include "wriggle free" , "Free (something) from difficulty" , "Free from entanglements" , "get out from difficult situation" , "Free from complicated situation" .)