Bully is identified in irregular matter (8)
I believe the answer is:
mistreat
'bully' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are verbs in their base form, I don't understand how one could define the other.
'identified in irregular matter' is the wordplay.
'identified' becomes 'is' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'in' is an insertion indicator.
'irregular' is an anagram indicator.
'matter' with letters rearranged gives 'mtreat'.
'is' placed into 'mtreat' is 'MISTREAT'.
'is' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for mistreat that I've seen before include "Deal unfairly with" , "Ill-use" , "Handle badly" , "Behave badly towards" , "Abuse" .)