'Jack, find the answer!' 'Pardon?' (7)
I believe the answer is:
absolve
'pardon?' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'jack find the answer' is the wordplay.
'jack' becomes 'ab'.
'find' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'the answer' becomes 'solve' (**).
'ab'+'solve'='ABSOLVE'
(Other definitions for absolve that I've seen before include "Declare (someone) free of guilt" , "Free (a person) from guilt" , "Declare to be free from blame" , "Let off the hook" , "Cleanse" .)