Frighten away villainous lion and repel enemy force (5,3)

I believe the answer is:

scare off

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'frighten away' is the definition.
(synonyms)

'villainous lion and repel enemy force' is the wordplay.
'villainous lion' becomes 'scar' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'and' says to put letters next to each other.
'repel' shows that the letters should be reversed in order (I've seen 'repelled' mean this).
'enemy' becomes 'foe' (synonyms).
'force' becomes 'f' (symbol used in Physics e.g. f=ma).
'foe' backwards is 'eof'.
'scar'+'eof'+'f'='SCARE OFF'

Can you help me to learn more?

I've seen this clue in the Sydney Morning Herald.

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