A girl embraces, thus, an old sailor (5)
I believe the answer is:
anson
'an old sailor' is the definition.
I know nothing about this answer so I cannot judge whether it can be defined by this definition.
'a girl embraces thus' is the wordplay.
'a girl' becomes 'ann' (woman's name).
'embraces' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'thus' becomes 'so' (synonyms).
'ann' placed around 'so' is 'ANSON'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Another definition for anson that I've seen is " George ____, circumnavigator and admiral, 1697-1762".)