Encourage to have highball back in old German ship (8)
I believe the answer is:
embolden
'encourage' is the definition.
(I know that embolden is a type of encourage)
'highball back in old german ship' is the wordplay.
I cannot really see how this works, but
'old' could be 'o' (common abbreviation eg in OE for Old English) and 'o' is found in the answer.
'german' could be 'de' (abbreviation for Deutschland) and 'de' is present in the answer.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
'to have' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for embolden that I've seen before include "Give courage to" , "Hearten" , "Encourage" , "To cheer" , "Inject courage into - me blonde" .)