Spiteful nut rallied around (3-7)
I believe the answer is:
ill-natured
'spiteful' is the definition.
(ill-natured means spiteful or nasty)
'nut rallied around' is the wordplay.
'around' indicates an anagram.
'nut'+'rallied'='nutrallied'
'nutrallied' anagrammed gives 'ILL-NATURED'.
(Other definitions for ill-natured that I've seen before include "Mean-spirited" , "Bad-tempered, churlish" .)