Almost imprisoning female with debts? Extremely wicked (9)
I believe the answer is:
nefarious
'extremely wicked' is the definition.
(I've seen this in another clue)
'almost imprisoning female with debts?' is the wordplay.
'almost' becomes 'near' (near can mean almost or virtually).
'imprisoning' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'female with' becomes 'f' (I've seen this in other clues).
'debts?' becomes 'IOUs' (promises to pay debts).
'near' enclosing 'f' is 'nefar'.
'nefar'+'ious'='NEFARIOUS'
(Other definitions for nefarious that I've seen before include "Villainous" , "Very bad" , "immoral?" , "Wicked, criminal" , "Extremely wicked" .)