Fear abandoning old battleship for nothing (6)
I believe the answer is:
nought
'nothing' is the definition.
(synonyms)
'fear abandoning old battleship' is the wordplay.
'fear' becomes 'dread' (dread is a kind of fear).
'abandoning' indicates named letters should be taken away.
'old battleship' becomes 'dreadnought' (I've seen this before).
'dreadnought' with 'dread' taken away is 'NOUGHT'.
'for' is the link.
(Other definitions for nought that I've seen before include "Love" , "Poetically nothing" , "The figure 0" , "Go hunt for nothing" , "The digit 0" .)