Sailor in hat the French gifted (7)
I believe the answer is:
capable
'gifted' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'sailor in hat the french' is the wordplay.
'sailor' becomes 'ab' (abbreviation for able seaman).
'in' indicates putting letters inside.
'hat' becomes 'cap' (I've seen this before**).
'the french' becomes 'le'.
'cap'+'le'='caple'
'ab' placed into 'caple' is 'CAPABLE'.
(Other definitions for capable that I've seen before include "Efficient" , "Of a person, competent" , "Able, competent" , "accomplished" , "Adept" .)