Chap nearly defying senior official (8)
I believe the answer is:
mandarin
'senior official' is the definition.
'mandarin' can be an answer for 'official' (mandarin is a kind of official). I'm unsure of the 'senior' bit.
'chap nearly defying' is the wordplay.
'chap' becomes 'Man' (chap can mean a man).
'nearly' means to remove the last letter.
'defying' becomes 'daring' ('dare' can be a synonym of 'defy').
'daring' with its final letter removed is 'darin'.
'man'+'darin'='MANDARIN'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for mandarin that I've seen before include "Chinese language; fruit" , "top official" , "Many millions speak of this" , "Asiatic duck" , "Language formerly used by educated Chinese, or a kind of orange" .)