Bore hollow knife in clutch (7)

I believe the answer is:

brooked

'bore' is the definition.
('brook' can be a synonym of 'bear')

'hollow knife in clutch' is the wordplay.
'hollow' suggests removing the centre.
'in' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'clutch' becomes 'brood' (I've seen this before).
'knife' with its middle removed is 'ke'.
'ke' put into 'brood' is 'BROOKED'.

(Another definition for brooked that I've seen is " Tolerated".)

I've seen this clue in The Times.

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