One loathes half-hearted madman? (5)
I believe the answer is:
hater
'madman?' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both people as well as being singular nouns.
Maybe there's a link between them I don't understand?
'one loathes half-hearted' is the wordplay.
'one loathes' becomes 'hate' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'half' becomes 'first' (first half is a kind of half).
'hearted' means to look at the middle letters.
The centre of 'first' is 'r'.
'hate'+'r'='HATER'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for hater that I've seen before include "He loathes" , "Person showing animosity" , "One loathing" , "Heart (anag.)" , "Antipathetic type" .)