Ran wild in captivity causing dreadful loss of life (7)
I believe the answer is:
carnage
'dreadful loss of life' is the definition.
I can't judge whether this defines the answer.
'ran wild in captivity' is the wordplay.
'wild' indicates an anagram.
'in' indicates putting letters inside.
'captivity' becomes 'cage' (I can't justify this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'ran' anagrammed gives 'arn'.
'arn' put within 'cage' is 'CARNAGE'.
'causing' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for carnage that I've seen before include "Bloodbath" , "Killing of large numbers" , "Bloody slaughter and butchery" , "Mass killing" , "Wholesale slaughter" .)