Tearing about a rock (7)
I believe the answer is:
granite
'a rock' is the definition.
(granite is a kind of rock)
'tearing about' is the wordplay.
'about' indicates anagramming the letters.
'tearing' with letters rearranged gives 'GRANITE'.
(Other definitions for granite that I've seen before include "Constituent in Dartmoor" , "Hard granular rock" , "Get rain (anag) - rock" , "Hard stone from Tangier" , "Hard igneous rock" .)