Hate Sailor Short's guts (5)
I believe the answer is:
abhor
'hate' is the definition.
(abhorring is a kind of hating)
'sailor short's guts' is the wordplay.
'sailor' becomes 'ab' (abbreviation for able seaman).
'guts' means to look at the middle letters (the insides of the word).
The centre of 'short' is 'hor'.
'ab'+'hor'='ABHOR'
(Other definitions for abhor that I've seen before include "Despise" , "can't stand" , "Regard with repugnance" , "Recoil from" , "Dislike very much" .)