Meticulous god with a hammer to strip boughs (8)
I believe the answer is:
thorough
'meticulous' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'god with a hammer to strip boughs' is the wordplay.
'god with a hammer' becomes 'thor' (I've seen this in another clue).
'to strip' says to take the centre (I've seen 'stripped' mean this (outside letters removed)).
The central letters of 'boughs' are 'ough'.
'thor'+'ough'='THOROUGH'
(Other definitions for thorough that I've seen before include "'Exhaustive, complete (8)'" , "Attending to every detail - complete" , "Careful, attending to every detail" , "Not superficial or partial" , "Doing things with great attention to detail" .)