Refuges, but terrible trickery (10)
I believe the answer is:
subterfuge
'trickery' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'refuges but terrible' is the wordplay.
'terrible' is an anagram indicator.
'refuges'+'but'='refugesbut'
'refugesbut' is an anagram of 'SUBTERFUGE'.
(Other definitions for subterfuge that I've seen before include "shifty conduct" , "Scheme" , "Duplicity" , "Evasive stratagem" , "Ruse" .)