Impassioned English hunks in outskirts of Vermont (8)
I believe the answer is:
vehement
'impassioned' is the definition.
(vehement means impassioned or forceful)
'english hunks in outskirts of vermont' is the wordplay.
'english' becomes 'E' (abbreviation as in OED).
'hunks' becomes 'he-men' (I've seen this in another clue).
'in' is an insertion indicator.
'outskirts of' means to remove the middle letters (only letters on the outskirts).
'vermont' with its middle taken out is 'vt'.
'e'+'hemen'='ehemen'
'ehemen' going inside 'vt' is 'VEHEMENT'.
(Other definitions for vehement that I've seen before include "Intensely forceful" , "Showing strong feeling, intense in speech" , "Forceful, emphatic" , "Violent" , "Of speech, intense and forceful" .)