Wet through as a rut burst over sides of terrace (8)
I believe the answer is:
saturate
'wet' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'as a rut burst over sides of terrace' is the wordplay.
'burst' indicates anagramming the letters.
'over' says to put letters next to each other (in a down clue, some letters go over others).
'sides of' means to remove the middle letters (only the letters on the sides remain).
'terrace' with its centre removed is 'te'.
'as'+'a'+'rut'='asarut'
'asarut' anagrammed gives 'satura'.
'satura'+'te'='SATURATE'
'through' is the link.
(Other definitions for saturate that I've seen before include "steep" , "Infuse or fill completely" , "Oversupply" , "Drench thoroughly, soak" , "Make thoroughly wet, soak" .)