Wife returned, about to fly off the handle (5)
I believe the answer is:
storm
'fly off the handle' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'wife returned about to' is the wordplay.
'wife' becomes 'mrs' (Mrs is an example).
'returned' is a reversal indicator.
'about' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'mrs' back-to-front is 'srm'.
'srm' enclosing 'to' is 'STORM'.
(Other definitions for storm that I've seen before include "Rampage" , "- drain; - cloud" , "Violent weather; shout angrily" , "Shout angrily, assault" , "Force 10 blow" .)