Poly associate admits 'I hated that'!Not exactly (7)
I believe the answer is:
roughly
'hated that'not exactly' is the definition.
I can't tell whether this defines the answer.
'poly associate admits 'i' is the wordplay.
'poly associate' becomes 'roly' (as in the phrase roly poly).
'admits' indicates putting letters inside.
''i' becomes 'ugh' (I can't justify this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'roly' placed around 'ugh' is 'ROUGHLY'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for roughly that I've seen before include "In the neighbourhood of" , "Sort of; with violence" , "Approximately, more or less" .)