Like an animal wrecking a ship (5)

I believe the answer is:

apish

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'like an animal' is the definition.
Both the definition and answer are adjectives. Maybe there's an association between them I don't understand?

'wrecking a ship' is the wordplay.
'wrecking' indicates anagramming the letters (I've seen this in other clues).
'a'+'ship'='aship'
'aship' with letters rearranged gives 'APISH'.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for apish that I've seen before include "Stupid" , "Silly" , "Foolish; simian" , "Foppish" , "Foolish; like a monkey" .)

I've seen this clue in the Evening Standard.

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