Shoddy to toy heartlessly with troubled ward (6)
I believe the answer is:
tawdry
'shoddy' is the definition.
(I know that shoddy can be written as tawdry)
'toy heartlessly with troubled ward' is the wordplay.
'heartlessly' says to hollow out the word (remove centre letters).
'with' indicates putting letters inside.
'troubled' is an anagram indicator.
'toy' with its middle taken out is 'ty'.
'ward' with letters rearranged gives 'awdr'.
'ty' placed around 'awdr' is 'TAWDRY'.
'to' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for tawdry that I've seen before include "In poor taste" , "Showy, but without taste or worth" , "Cheap and shoddy" , "Showy and gaudy but without real value" , "Cheap and flashy" .)