Dick twisted many an arm (6)

I believe the answer is:

pistol

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'an arm' is the definition.
(pistol is a kind of arm)

'dick twisted many' is the wordplay.
'dick' becomes 'pis' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'twisted' says the letters should be written in reverse.
'many' becomes 'lot' (I've seen this before).
'lot' reversed gives 'tol'.
'pis'+'tol'='PISTOL'

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for pistol that I've seen before include "Spoilt these guns" , "Small firearm" , "Rectangular" , "Hand-held firearm" , "Small gun" .)

I've seen this clue in The Guardian.

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