Break engineers with malice (7)
I believe the answer is:
respite
'break' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'engineers with malice' is the wordplay.
'engineers' becomes 're' (Royal Engineers).
'with' says to put letters next to each other.
'malice' becomes 'spite' (spite is a kind of malice).
're'+'spite'='RESPITE'
(Other definitions for respite that I've seen before include "Relaxation" , "Short period of relief" , "Brief let-up" , "Pause; reprieve" , "A lull" .)