Shoes almost ruined stockings (4)
I believe the answer is:
hose
'stockings' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'shoes almost ruined' is the wordplay.
'almost' means to remove the first letter.
'ruined' indicates anagramming the letters.
'shoes' with its first letter removed is 'hoes'.
'hoes' with letters rearranged gives 'HOSE'.
(Other definitions for hose that I've seen before include "Piping" , "Flexible pipe for liquid" , "Breeches (worn with a doublet)" , "footwear" , "One with doublet; a tube" .)