Meaning home guard started wandering (8)
I believe the answer is:
drifting
'wandering' is the definition.
(drifting is a kind of wandering)
'meaning home guard' is the wordplay.
'meaning' becomes 'drift' (drift is a kind of meaning).
'home' becomes 'in' ('he's home' can mean 'he's in').
'guard' becomes 'g' (this could be a standard abbreviation of which I'm unaware).
'drift'+'in'+'g'='DRIFTING'
'started' is the link.
This may not be correct. It may belong to another bit of the clue.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for drifting that I've seen before include "Floating with the current" , "Aimlessly wandering from place to place" , "Floating about aimlessly" .)