Wipe out revolutionary rodents occupying court (8)
I believe the answer is:
decimate
'wipe out' is the definition.
(synonyms)
'revolutionary rodents occupying court' is the wordplay.
'revolutionary' says the letters should be written backwards.
'rodents' becomes 'mice' (mouse is a kind of rodent).
'occupying' is an insertion indicator.
'court' becomes 'date' (romantically pursue).
'mice' reversed gives 'ecim'.
'ecim' placed into 'date' is 'DECIMATE'.
(Other definitions for decimate that I've seen before include "slaughter" , "Wipe out a large number" , "severely cut" , "By killing" , "Kill one in ten (as Romans did as punishment for mutiny)" .)