Despise officer losing heart after minor injury (5)
I believe the answer is:
abhor
'despise' is the definition.
(abhor means to detest)
'officer losing heart after minor injury' is the wordplay.
'losing heart' says to hollow out the word (remove centre letters).
'after' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'minor injury' becomes 'abh' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should believe this answer much more).
'officer' with its centre taken out is 'or'.
'or' after 'abh' is 'ABHOR'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for abhor that I've seen before include "Loathe, find repugnant" , "Abominate" , "Find horrible" , "Regard with disgust and hatred" , "Recoil from" .)