Draw out like a thief at sea (8)
I believe the answer is:
aspirate
'draw out' is the definition.
(I know that draw out can be written as aspirate)
'a thief at sea' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'a' is within the answer.
'thief' could be 'pirate' (pirate is a kind of thief) and 'pirate' is located in the answer.
A single letter 's' remains which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
'like' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for aspirate that I've seen before include "Pronounce the letter H at the beginning of a word" , "A Parisian doesn't" , "H sound - suck air in or out" , "Sound one's Hs" , "how he lived his life" .)