Cross court as if suspect (9)
I believe the answer is:
fractious
'cross' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'court as if suspect' is the wordplay.
'suspect' is an anagram indicator (a suspicious or unusual spelling).
'court'+'as'+'if'='courtasif'
'courtasif' is an anagram of 'FRACTIOUS'.
(Other definitions for fractious that I've seen before include "Difficult to control; irritable" , "Cross and quarrelsome" , "Petulant; awkward" , "Fretful" , "Testy" .)