Gents are abandoned, cut off (8)
I believe the answer is:
estrange
'cut off' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'gents are abandoned' is the wordplay.
'abandoned' indicates an anagram.
'gents'+'are'='gentsare'
'gentsare' with letters rearranged gives 'ESTRANGE'.
(Other definitions for estrange that I've seen before include "Make bad friends with sergeant" , "Divorce" , "Anger set (anag.)" , "Arouse hostility" , "Antagonise using reagents" .)