Abrade the cuffs? (5)

I believe the answer is:

scuff

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'abrade' is the definition.
(thesaurus)

'cuffs?' is the wordplay.
'cuffs' can be anagrammed to 'SCUFF'.
However, I'm not clear how this is indicated.

'the' is the link.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for scuff that I've seen before include "Scrape (shoe, etc)" , "Scrape (shoe leather)" , "Scrape (shoes) when walking" , "drag, while walking" , "Scrape (eg, a shoe)" .)

I've seen this clue in the Evening Standard.

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