A space hollowed by clever badger (9)
I believe the answer is:
persecute
'badger' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'a space hollowed by clever' is the wordplay.
'a' becomes 'per' (eg 'one a day' means 'one per day').
'hollowed' says to hollow out the word (remove centre letters).
'by' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'clever' becomes 'cute' (I've seen this in another clue).
'space' with its middle taken out is 'se'.
'per'+'se'+'cute'='PERSECUTE'
(Other definitions for persecute that I've seen before include "Persistently harass" , "Oppress, cause to suffer" , "Dog" , "hound" , "Oppress, harass" .)