A young explorer is getting expelled shortly, but is appealing (8)
I believe the answer is:
adorable
'is appealing' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'a young explorer is getting expelled shortly' is the wordplay.
'young explorer' becomes 'Dora' (Dora the Explorer, children's TV character).
'is getting' says to put letters next to each other.
'expelled' becomes 'bled' (bleed can mean to expel).
'shortly' means to remove the last letter.
'bled' with its last letter taken off is 'ble'.
'a'+'dora'+'ble'='ADORABLE'
'but' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for adorable that I've seen before include "'Lovable, delightful (8)'" , "Quite delightful, fit to be worshipped" , "Attractive - captivating" , "worthy of love" , "Lovely and attractive" .)