Abusive threesome caught in civil unrest (9)
I believe the answer is:
vitriolic
'abusive' is the definition.
Both the definition and answer are adjectives. Perhaps you can see an association between them that I can't see?
'threesome caught in civil unrest' is the wordplay.
'threesome' becomes 'trio' (both can mean a group of three).
'caught in' indicates putting letters inside.
'unrest' is an anagram indicator.
'civil' with letters rearranged gives 'vilic'.
'trio' placed within 'vilic' is 'VITRIOLIC'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for vitriolic that I've seen before include "Highly corrosive" , "Cruelly savage (criticism)" , "biting" , "Acrimonious" , "Severely bitter" .)