A story, nipper's prime requirement, had to be off-putting (8)
I believe the answer is:
alienate
'be off-putting' is the definition.
(to alienate someone is to put them off)
'a story nipper's prime requirement had' is the wordplay.
'story' becomes 'lie' (story can mean a fabrication).
'prime requirement' says to take the initial letters.
'had' becomes 'ate' (e.g. I had an ice cream).
The initial letter of 'nippers' is 'n'.
'a'+'lie'+'n'+'ate'='ALIENATE'
'to' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for alienate that I've seen before include "divorce" , "Arouse hostility" , "Make hostile, cause to become unfriendly" , "transfer" , "A Count, worked to unify Italy" .)