Depraved sort soldiers will copy (9)
I believe the answer is:
reprobate
'depraved' is the definition.
(I know that depraved can be written as reprobate)
'sort soldiers will copy' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'soldiers' could be 're' (Royal Engineers) and 're' is found within the answer.
The remaining letters 'probate' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for reprobate that I've seen before include "Rascal" , "corrupt" , "Miscreant" , "Villain" , "someone depraved" .)