Reject ruling? Sailor to expire receiving whip (8)
I believe the answer is:
abdicate
'reject' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'ruling? sailor to expire receiving whip' is the wordplay.
'ruling? sailor' becomes 'ab' (abbreviation for able seaman. I am not sure about the 'ruling?' bit.).
'to expire' becomes 'die' (synonyms).
'receiving' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'whip' becomes 'cat' (cat o' nine tails, cat for short is a type of whip).
'die' enclosing 'cat' is 'dicate'.
'ab'+'dicate'='ABDICATE'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for abdicate that I've seen before include "Renounce one's throne" , "step down" , "Resign from or renounce the throne" , "surrender" , "Vacate the throne voluntarily" .)