Put limits on dress, strip clothing off before court (8)
I believe the answer is:
restrict
'put limits on' is the definition.
(to restrict something is to limit it)
'dress strip clothing off before court' is the wordplay.
'dress' becomes 'res' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'clothing off' means to look at the middle letters (the letters which clothe the word are removed).
'before' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'court' becomes 'ct' (abbreviation used in road names).
The centre of 'strip' is 'tri'.
'res'+'tri'+'ct'='RESTRICT'
(Other definitions for restrict that I've seen before include "Put limit on" , "Place limits on" , "Limit or regulate" , "'Restrain, limit (8)'" , "Place limit on" .)