Husband comes in exhausted, removing black tie (4,4)
I believe the answer is:
dead heat
'tie' is the definition.
(I know that dead heat is a type of tie)
'husband comes in exhausted removing black' is the wordplay.
'husband' becomes 'h' (abbreviation).
'comes in' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'exhausted' becomes 'dead' (I've seen this in another clue).
'removing black' becomes 'eat' (I can't justify this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'dead'+'eat'='deadeat'
'h' going within 'deadeat' is 'DEAD-HEAT'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for dead heat that I've seen before include "sporting tie" , "Race finish with contestants exactly even - or moribund?" , "contest too close to call" , "so exciting a race?" , "Where runners are equal first" .)