Pushes back against merry outsiders who seem quite sycophantic (6)
I believe the answer is:
smarmy
'sycophantic' is the definition.
(I've seen this in another clue)
'pushes back against merry outsiders' is the wordplay.
'pushes' becomes 'rams'.
'back' shows that the letters should be reversed in order.
'against' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'outsiders' says to hollow out the word (remove centre letters) (only the letters on the outside of the word remain).
'merry' with its centre removed is 'my'.
'rams' written backwards gives 'smar'.
'smar'+'my'='SMARMY'
'who seem quite' is the link.
I am not very happy about this link. Some or all of it may be part of another bit of the clue.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for smarmy that I've seen before include "Slick" , "Smooth" , "Unctuous" , "Conceal oneself" , "Bootlicking" .)