Wretched home plant all stunted (8)
I believe the answer is:
infernal
'wretched' is the definition.
Both the answer and definition are adjectives. Maybe they are linked in a way I don't understand?
'home plant all stunted' is the wordplay.
'home' becomes 'in' ('he's home' can mean 'he's in').
'plant' becomes 'fern' (fern is a kind of plant).
'stunted' means to remove the last letter (the word is shorter than it usually is).
'all' with its final letter taken away is 'al'.
'in'+'fern'+'al'='INFERNAL'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for infernal that I've seen before include "Hellish - damned" , "To do with hell and its fires" , "evil here" , "Of hell, or tiresome like a nuisance" , "Damned, diabolical" .)