Girl and copper dined in desert (8)
I believe the answer is:
evacuate
'desert' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'girl and copper dined' is the wordplay.
'girl' becomes 'Eva' (girl's name).
'and' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'copper' becomes 'cu' (chemical symbol).
'dined' becomes 'ate' (I've seen this in another clue).
'eva'+'cu'+'ate'='EVACUATE'
'in' is the link.
(Other definitions for evacuate that I've seen before include "In wartime, remove civilians from cities to safety of countryside" , "Withdraw from (a place)" , "Send to the country" , "Move out of an unsafe location" , "Make people leave a dangerous location" .)