Crossword Genius

Ordeal with wild thing, a horse (9)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

nightmare

'ordeal' is the definition.
(thesaurus)

'with wild thing a horse' is the wordplay.
'with' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'wild' indicates an anagram.
'a horse' becomes 'mare' (mare is a kind of horse).
'thing' with letters rearranged gives 'night'.
'night'+'mare' is 'NIGHTMARE'.

(Other definitions for nightmare that I've seen before include "hellish event" , "Terrifying experience" , "Scary fantasy while asleep" , "Horrible experience" , "that might upset the rest" .)

I've seen this clue in the Sydney Morning Herald.
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