Wife remains for lotion (4)
I believe the answer is:
wash
'lotion' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'wife remains' is the wordplay.
'wife' becomes 'w'.
'remains' becomes 'ash' (I've seen this before).
'w'+'ash'='WASH'
'for' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for wash that I've seen before include "Clean with liquid" , "bath" , "Stand up" , "Clean with soap" , "Flow over" .)