Is turning up with nothing to cut rent twisting? (7)
I believe the answer is:
torsion
'twisting?' is the definition.
(I've seen this in another clue)
'is turning up with nothing to cut rent' is the wordplay.
'turning up' says the letters should be written backwards.
'with' says to put letters next to each other.
'nothing' becomes 'O' (looks like zero - 0).
'to cut' means one lot of letters goes inside another (some letters cut their way into a word).
'rent' becomes 'torn' (synonyms).
'is' backwards is 'si'.
'si'+'o'='sio'
'sio' inserted into 'torn' is 'TORSION'.
(Other definitions for torsion that I've seen before include "Twisting action" , "White-berried parasite" , "The act of twisting" , "twist" , "Twisted position - no riots (anag)" .)