Ray’s small nudge (5)
I believe the answer is:
spoke
'ray's' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'small nudge' is the wordplay.
'small' becomes 's' (abbreviation - e.g. clothes size).
'nudge' becomes 'poke' (I've seen this in another clue).
's'+'poke'='SPOKE'
(Other definitions for spoke that I've seen before include "Rung" , "Radiating rod" , "Radius" , "addressed" , "Uttered - bicycle wheel part" .)