Shred leaves with front part of rake (4)

I believe the answer is:

tear

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'shred' is the definition.
(I know that shred is a more specific form of tear)

'leaves with front part of rake' is the wordplay.
'leaves' becomes 'tea' (as in tea leaves).
'with front part of rake' becomes 'r' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'tea'+'r'='TEAR'

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for tear that I've seen before include "charge" , "Droplet; rip" , "Droplet from the eye" , "Split - career" , "Rip, rend" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times.

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