Wife turned up, about to fly off the handle (5)
I believe the answer is:
storm
'fly off the handle' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'wife turned up about to' is the wordplay.
'wife' becomes 'mrs' (Mrs is an example).
'turned up' says the letters should be written backwards.
'about' is an insertion indicator.
'mrs' reversed gives 'srm'.
'srm' placed around 'to' is 'STORM'.
(Other definitions for storm that I've seen before include "Violent weather; shout angrily" , "Rumpus" , "Attack and capture (a place)" , "rage" , "Charge" .)