Physicist: evil liar, curt twisted manipulator (11)
I believe the answer is:
machiavelli
'curt twisted manipulator' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both people as well as being singular nouns.
Perhaps there's a link between them I don't understand?
'physicist evil liar' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'physicist' could be 'mach' (Ernest Mach 1838-1916) and 'mach' is located in the answer.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for machiavelli that I've seen before include "Italian political philosopher, proponent of unscrupulous government, d. 1527" , "unprincipled politician" , "Italian political philosopher, author of "The Prince"" , "Statesman of Florence" , "One advising how to rule" .)