In dreadful court it's not straight (8)
I believe the answer is:
indirect
'not straight' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'in dreadful court' is the wordplay.
'dreadful' becomes 'dire' (synonyms).
'court' becomes 'ct' (abbreviation used in road names).
'in'+'dire'+'ct'='INDIRECT'
'it's' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for indirect that I've seen before include "sort of speech" , "Roundabout, circuitous" , "Not straighforward" , "Not following the shortest way" , "Circumlocutory" .)