Force a beat to relent (5)
I believe the answer is:
abate
'to relent' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'force a beat' is the wordplay.
'force' is an anagram indicator (letters must be forced into a new order).
'a'+'beat'='abeat'
'abeat' with letters rearranged gives 'ABATE'.
(Other definitions for abate that I've seen before include "Become less intense" , "Subside like storm" , "Decline" , "Go down like storm" , "Demolish" .)