Drink — and suffer, by the sound of it (3)
I believe the answer is:
ale
'drink' is the definition.
(type of beer)
'suffer by the sound of it' is the wordplay.
'suffer' becomes 'ail' (ailing is a kind of suffering).
'by the sound of it' shows a homophone (sound like).
'ail' is a homophone of 'ALE'.
'and' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for ale that I've seen before include "The A in CAMRA" , "English beer, mild or bitter" , "brew" , "festival" , "Brewery product" .)