Queen with snake producing scratch (4)
I believe the answer is:
rasp
'scratch' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'queen with snake' is the wordplay.
'queen' becomes 'r' (r is abbreviation regina. e.g. in ER ).
'with' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'snake' becomes 'asp' (asp is a kind of snake).
'r'+'asp'='RASP'
'producing' is the link.
(Other definitions for rasp that I've seen before include "sort of berry?" , "Coarse file or grating sound" , "File - berry" , "unpleasant noise" , "Harsh noise - file" .)