Gathering, following complaint (4)
I believe the answer is:
beef
'complaint' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'gathering following' is the wordplay.
'gathering' becomes 'bee' (bee is a kind of gathering**).
'following' becomes 'f' (used when citing page numbers etc).
'bee'+'f'='BEEF'
(Other definitions for beef that I've seen before include "See 24" , "Complaint; muscle" , "nickname of US State" , "Bovine flesh" , "Argument" .)