Acknowledge record formerly held by English (7)
I believe the answer is:
concede
'acknowledge' is the definition.
(conceding is a kind of acknowledging)
'record formerly held by english' is the wordplay.
'record' becomes 'cd' (I've seen this in other clues**).
'formerly' becomes 'once' ('once' can be a synonym of 'formerly').
'held by' indicates putting letters inside.
'english' becomes 'e' (abbreviation).
'cd' going around 'once' is 'conced'.
'conced'+'e'='CONCEDE'
(Other definitions for concede that I've seen before include "Make concession" , "Admit; surrender" , "Admit something is true" , "Acknowledge defeat" , "Admit; yield" .)