Brutish student supporting warped mania (6)
I believe the answer is:
animal
'brutish' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'student supporting warped mania' is the wordplay.
'student' becomes 'l' (as in L-plates for learner drivers).
'supporting' means one lot of letters go next to another (in a down clue, some letters go below others).
'warped' indicates anagramming the letters.
'mania' is an anagram of 'anima'.
'l' after 'anima' is 'ANIMAL'.
(Other definitions for animal that I've seen before include "Man or beast" , "Animate being" , "Brutal, sensual" , "Circus performer, maybe" , "Brute - one of the Muppets" .)