Scholarly rascal consumed by a terrible malice (10)
I believe the answer is:
academical
'scholarly' is the definition.
Both the definition and answer are adjectives.
Maybe there's a link between them I don't understand?
'rascal consumed by a terrible malice' is the wordplay.
'rascal' becomes 'cad' (both can mean a dishonourable person).
'consumed by' indicates putting letters inside (inserted letters get consumed).
'terrible' indicates anagramming the letters.
'malice' with letters rearranged gives 'emical'.
'a'+'emical'='aemical'
'cad' inserted inside 'aemical' is 'ACADEMICAL'.
Can you help me to learn more?
I've seen this clue in The Independent.
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