Drink works for substitute (8)
I believe the answer is:
supplant
'substitute' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'drink works' is the wordplay.
'drink' becomes 'sup' (I've seen this before).
'works' becomes 'plant' ('plant' can be a synonym of 'works'**).
'sup'+'plant'='SUPPLANT'
'for' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for supplant that I've seen before include "Displace" , "Supersede and replace" , "take another's place" , "Oust" .)