Relations are almost friendly (3)
I believe the answer is:
kin
'relations' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'almost friendly' is the wordplay.
'almost' means to remove the last letter (most of the word but not all of it).
'friendly' becomes 'kind' ('kind' can be a synonym of 'friendly').
'kind' with its last letter taken away is 'KIN'.
'are' is the link.
(Other definitions for kin that I've seen before include "Flesh and blood" , "One's family/relations" , "Family members" , "Relations, go with kith" , "A person's relatives, goes with kith" .)