The oaf inside many a hoodlum (5)
I believe the answer is:
yahoo
'the oaf' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both people as well as being singular nouns.
Perhaps there's a link between them I don't understand?
'inside many a hoodlum' is the wordplay.
'inside' indicates a hidden word.
'YAHOO' is hidden within 'many a hoodlum'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for yahoo that I've seen before include "Swift chap" , "A Swiftian lout" , "Human-looking beast in Gulliver's Travels: search engine conglomerate" , "Ugly swipe at delivery" , "Boorish lout (after Swift)" .)