Awful short-term heat we manage to survive (7,3,5)
I believe the answer is:
weather the storm
'to survive' is the definition.
(I've seen this in another clue)
'awful short-term heat we' is the wordplay.
'awful' indicates an anagram.
'short'+'term'+'heat'+'we'='shorttermheatwe'
'shorttermheatwe' with letters rearranged gives 'WEATHER THE STORM'.
'manage' is the link.
This may not be right. It may belong to another bit of the clue.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Another definition for weather the storm that I've seen is " Survive difficulties".)