First off, discourages relatives (5)
I believe the answer is:
aunts
'relatives' is the definition.
(aunt is a kind of relative)
'first off discourages' is the wordplay.
'first off' means to remove the first letter.
'discourages' becomes 'daunts' (to daunt is to discourage or intimidate).
'daunts' with its initial letter taken off is 'AUNTS'.
(Other definitions for aunts that I've seen before include "Elderly female relations" , "Female relatives, usually older" , "Relatives get a peculiar US tan" , "relatively speaking" , "Relatives get an odd US tan" .)