Die horribly in defeat — or survive (4,3)
I believe the answer is:
ride out
'survive' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'die horribly in defeat' is the wordplay.
'horribly' indicates an anagram.
'in' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'defeat' becomes 'rout' (rout is a kind of defeat).
'die' with letters rearranged gives 'ide'.
'ide' inserted into 'rout' is 'RIDE OUT'.
'or' is the link.
(Other definitions for ride out that I've seen before include "Endure" , "Survive" .)