Crossword Genius

Beat up little Malcolm (3)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

lam

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'beat' is the definition.
(I've seen this in other clues)

'up little malcolm' is the wordplay.
'up' becomes 'la' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'little' indicates taking the first letters.
The first letter of 'malcolm' is 'm'.
'la'+'m'='LAM'

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for lam that I've seen before include "hurried flight" , "On this, you're fleeing, from the police" , "Hit hard or repeatedly" , "Beat hard" , "Hit hard, strike" .)

I've seen this clue in the Evening Standard.
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