Crossword Genius

Confiscated by club, the awful knife (7)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

machete

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'knife' is the definition.
(machete is a kind of knife)

'confiscated by club the awful' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
an anagram of 'the' is 'het' which is present in the answer.
'club' could be 'mace' (I've seen this before) and 'mace' is found in the remaining letters.
No letters remain.
This explanation may well be incorrect...

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for machete that I've seen before include "Jungle chopper" , "Teach me with large jungle knife" , "Heavy South American knife" , "Broad heavy knife used in S America" , "Knife for hacking" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times.
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