Athlete who's paid money for present (8)
I believe the answer is:
propound
'present' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both to do with communicating as well as being verbs in their base form.
Perhaps you can see a link between them that I can't see?
'athlete who's paid money' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'athlete' could be 'pro' (pro is a kind of athlete) and 'pro' is found within the answer.
'money' could be 'pound' (pound sterling) and 'pound' is present in the answer.
This accounts for all the letters.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
'for' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for propound that I've seen before include "What Eurosceptics are" , "Put the case" , "move?" , "Offer for consideration" , "Advance" .)