Bad act of wise man, imprisoning head monk heartlessly? (8)
I believe the answer is:
sabotage
'bad act' is the definition.
'sabotage' can be an answer for 'act' (sabotage is a kind of act). I'm not certain of the 'bad' bit.
'wise man imprisoning head monk heartlessly?' is the wordplay.
'wise man' becomes 'sage' (sage is a kind of wise man).
'imprisoning' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'head monk' becomes 'abbot' (I've seen this in another clue).
'heartlessly?' suggests removing the centre (I've seen 'heartlessly' mean this).
'abbot' with its middle removed is 'abot'.
'sage' going around 'abot' is 'SABOTAGE'.
'of' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for sabotage that I've seen before include "Deliberately destroy" , "enemy action" , "Deliberate act of destruction or disruption" , "Deliberate and malicious destruction" , "Subvert" .)