Perceptive wife cleared out grate (5)
I believe the answer is:
shred
'grate' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'perceptive wife cleared out' is the wordplay.
'perceptive' becomes 'shrewd'.
'wife' becomes 'w'.
'cleared out' is a deletion indicator.
'shrewd' with 'w' taken out is 'SHRED'.
(Other definitions for shred that I've seen before include "Bit of rag" , "just a touch" , "Rip up" , "Cut into small pieces" , "(Reduce to) small piece(s)" .)