Former VIP let out European obscenity (9)
I believe the answer is:
expletive
'obscenity' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'former vip let out european' is the wordplay.
'former' becomes 'ex' (prefix meaning former or onetime).
'out' indicates an anagram (out can mean wrong or inaccurate).
'european' becomes 'e' (abbreviation e.g. EU).
'vip'+'let'='viplet'
'viplet' is an anagram of 'pletiv'.
'ex'+'pletiv'+'e'='EXPLETIVE'
(Other definitions for expletive that I've seen before include "oath" , "Dirty word" , "Swear word" , "Swearword" , "Four-letter word" .)