Liniment husband puts on affected work essentially (7)
I believe the answer is:
camphor
'liniment' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'husband puts on affected work essentially' is the wordplay.
'husband' becomes 'h' (abbreviation).
'puts on' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other) (in a down clue, some letters go on top of others).
'affected' becomes 'camp' (camp can mean exaggerated or affected).
'essentially' says to take the centre.
The middle of 'work' is 'or'.
'h' after 'camp' is 'camph'.
'camph'+'or'='CAMPHOR'
(Other definitions for camphor that I've seen before include "Medicinal inhalant" , "Liniment" , "Mothball chemical" , "Substance used to repel moths" , "Aromatic substance used as an insect repellent" .)