Acknowledge record English at one time held (7)
I believe the answer is:
concede
'acknowledge' is the definition.
(conceding is a kind of acknowledging)
'record english at one time held' is the wordplay.
'record' becomes 'cd' (I've seen this in other clues**).
'english' becomes 'e' (abbreviation).
'at one time' becomes 'once' (I've seen this before).
'held' indicates putting letters inside.
'cd'+'e'='cde'
'cde' enclosing 'once' is 'CONCEDE'.
(Other definitions for concede that I've seen before include "Yield; grant" , "Admit; yield" , "Acknowledge - abandon" , "Admit; surrender" , "Acknowledge defeat" .)