Prevaricate, husband having upper hand (5)
I believe the answer is:
hedge
'prevaricate' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'husband having upper hand' is the wordplay.
'husband' becomes 'h'.
'having' says to put letters next to each other.
'upper hand' becomes 'edge' (I've seen this before).
'h'+'edge'='HEDGE'
(Other definitions for hedge that I've seen before include "Fence formed by bushes" , "Qualify by conditions; boundary of bushes" , "Fence of bushes or small trees" , "Row of linked shrubs" , "Growing division" .)