Heartlessly knock down powerless friend — no longer buddy? (6)
I believe the answer is:
floral
'friend no longer buddy?' is the definition.
I can't judge whether this defines the answer.
'heartlessly knock down powerless' is the wordplay.
'heartlessly' means to remove the middle letters.
'knock down' becomes 'fell' (I've seen this before).
'powerless' becomes 'oral' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'fell' with its middle removed is 'fl'.
'fl'+'oral'='FLORAL'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for floral that I've seen before include "To do with flowers, flowery" , "Of flowers, like wreath" , "Relating to flowers" , "Place for seaside holiday" , "sort of arrangement" .)