Is he less clever than Dick? (5)

I believe the answer is:

bobby

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'dick?' is the definition.
(thesaurus)

'is he less clever' is the wordplay.
'is he' becomes 'Bob' (short for Robert).
'less clever' becomes 'by' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should believe this answer much more).
'bob'+'by'='BOBBY'

'than' is the link.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for bobby that I've seen before include "- Moore, World Cup winning captain" , "beat man" , "Policeman (colloq.)" , "Rob" , "(Local) policeman" .)

I've seen this clue in the Evening Standard.

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