Crossword Genius

Malformed sardines maybe, about a kilo netted (8)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

freakish

'malformed' is the definition.
(thesaurus)

'sardines maybe about a kilo netted' is the wordplay.
'sardines maybe' becomes 'fish' (sardine is a type of fish).
'about' becomes 'rea' (I've seen this in other clues).
'a kilo' becomes 'k' (phonetic alphabet: alpha, bravo, charlie etc.).
'netted' means one lot of letters goes inside another (inserted letters are caught or netted).
'rea'+'k'='reak'
'fish' enclosing 'reak' is 'FREAKISH'.

(Other definitions for freakish that I've seen before include "Extraordinarily unusual" , "Arbitrary" , "Very unexpected" , "Weird" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times.
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