Inflict southern company to incite (7)
I believe the answer is:
scourge
'inflict' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are verbs in their base form, I can't see how one could define the other.
'southern company to incite' is the wordplay.
'southern' becomes 's' (abbreviation).
'company' becomes 'co' (abbreviation).
'to incite' becomes 'urge' (I've seen this before).
's'+'co'+'urge'='SCOURGE'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for scourge that I've seen before include "Whip used to inflict punishment" , "Whip; source of suffering" , "Punish severely" , "menace" , "Whip, flog" .)