Professors discharged - i.e. retired and retaining worth (7)
I believe the answer is:
emeriti
'professors' is the definition.
(I have seen 'Retired professors ' mean 'emeriti' so perhaps 'professors' could also mean 'emeriti')
'discharged i e retired and retaining worth' is the wordplay.
I cannot really see how this works, but
'i' could be 'me' and 'me' is found within the answer.
'e' is within the answer.
'retired' could be 'r' (abbreviation) and 'r' is present in the answer.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for emeriti that I've seen before include "Former professors" , "honoured predecessors?" , "Persons who have been honourably discharged from public duties; time ire (anag.)" , "Former academics" , "old academics" .)