Girl with authoritarian ward (8)
I believe the answer is:
district
'ward' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'girl with authoritarian' is the wordplay.
'girl' becomes 'Di' (short for Diane or Diana).
'with' says to put letters next to each other.
'authoritarian' becomes 'strict' (I've seen this in another clue).
'di'+'strict'='DISTRICT'
(Other definitions for district that I've seen before include "Territory, zone" , "Territorial division" , "'Area, territory (8)'" , "London Underground line represented in green" , "Area, region" .)