Ladies nearly thrashing model (5)
I believe the answer is:
ideal
'model' is the definition.
(ideal can mean model or perfect)
'ladies nearly thrashing' is the wordplay.
'nearly' means to remove the last letter.
'thrashing' indicates an anagram (I've seen this in other clues).
'ladies' with its final letter taken away is 'ladie'.
'ladie' with letters rearranged gives 'IDEAL'.
(Other definitions for ideal that I've seen before include "that can't be bettered?" , "Textbook" , "Perfect but perhaps unlikely to become reality" , "In her dreams" , "Conceptual" .)