Mad fellow in charge drawing in soldiers with trap (8)
I believe the answer is:
frenetic
'mad' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'fellow in charge drawing in soldiers with trap' is the wordplay.
'fellow in charge' becomes 'fic' (this might be a standard abbreviation I've not previously seen).
'drawing in' is an insertion indicator (draw in can mean to contain or trap).
'soldiers' becomes 're' (Royal Engineers).
'with' says to put letters next to each other.
'trap' becomes 'net' (net is a kind of trap).
're'+'net'='renet'
'fic' going around 'renet' is 'FRENETIC'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for frenetic that I've seen before include "Re-infect, being quite frenzied" , "Mad" , "Wildly fast and energetic" , "Frantic, frenzied" , "Lively" .)