Big record about a person who has given up hope? (8)
I believe the answer is:
fatalist
'person who has given up hope?' is the definition.
'big record about a' is the wordplay.
'big' becomes 'fat'.
'record' becomes 'list' (I've seen this before).
'about' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'list' after 'a' is 'alist'.
'fat'+'alist'='FATALIST'
(Other definitions for fatalist that I've seen before include "One believing in predetermination" , "One submitting to destiny" , "One who accepts whatever happens as inevitable" , "One who accepts events as inevitable" , "One with a submissive attitude to events" .)