Remove from the earth at times (5)
I believe the answer is:
erase
'remove' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'the earth at times' is the wordplay.
'the earth' becomes 'e'.
'at' means one lot of letters go next to another (I've seen this in other clues).
'times' becomes 'eras' (era is a kind of time).
'e' after 'eras' is 'ERASE'.
'from' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for erase that I've seen before include "Delete" , "Remove, wipe out" , "Efface" , "Do away with" , "Remove permanently" .)