Grunting, chew nuts — awful! (3-9)
I believe the answer is:
gut-wrenching
'awful' is the definition.
Both the definition and answer are adjectives.
Maybe you can see a link between them that I can't see?
'grunting chew nuts' is the wordplay.
'nuts' is an anagram indicator (nuts can mean crazy).
'grunting'+'chew'='gruntingchew'
'gruntingchew' with letters rearranged gives 'GUT-WRENCHING'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Another definition for gut-wrenching that I've seen is " Extremely upsetting".)