Butchered preface to message in italics (7)
I believe the answer is:
mangled
'butchered' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'preface to message in italics' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'message' could be 'ma' (MA is an example) and 'ma' is found in the answer.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for mangled that I've seen before include "Damn leg may be mutilated" , "did butcher" , "Mutilated - pressed clothes through a machine" , "Chewed up" , "Distorted" .)