Work with artist hiding evil thug (7)
I believe the answer is:
gorilla
'thug' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'work with artist hiding evil' is the wordplay.
'work with' becomes 'go' ('go' can be a synonym of 'work'. I am not sure about the 'with' bit.**).
'artist' becomes 'ra' (Royal Academician, member of Royal Academy of Arts).
'hiding' indicates putting letters inside.
'evil' becomes 'ill' (I've seen this in other clues).
'ra' enclosing 'ill' is 'rilla'.
'go'+'rilla'='GORILLA'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for gorilla that I've seen before include "Big ape" , "big mammal" , "Heavy" , "brutal man" , "Large chest-beating ape" .)