Say nothing adopted by sort of professor is outrageous (9)
I believe the answer is:
egregious
'outrageous' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'say nothing adopted by sort of professor' is the wordplay.
'say' becomes 'eg'.
'nothing' becomes 'o' (looks like zero - 0).
'adopted by' indicates putting letters inside (I've seen this in other clues).
'sort of professor' becomes 'regius'.
'o' inserted within 'regius' is 'regious'.
'eg'+'regious'='EGREGIOUS'
'is' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for egregious that I've seen before include "Outstandingly bad" , "Notably bad" , "Notorious" , "Flagrant; appalling" , "Insufferable" .)