Sailor to expire whilst receiving whip, or give up (8)
I believe the answer is:
abdicate
'give up' is the definition.
(abdicating is a kind of giving up)
'sailor to expire whilst receiving whip' is the wordplay.
'sailor' becomes 'ab' (abbreviation for able seaman).
'to expire' becomes 'die' ('die' can be a synonym of 'expire').
'whilst receiving' means one lot of letters goes inside another (inserted letters are received or accepted).
'whip' becomes 'cat' (cat o' nine tails, cat for short is a type of whip).
'die' going around 'cat' is 'dicate'.
'ab'+'dicate'='ABDICATE'
'or' is the link.
(Other definitions for abdicate that I've seen before include "Leave throne" , "Resign from or renounce the throne" , "Vacate the throne voluntarily" , "Renounce one's throne" , "Formally renounce throne, power etc" .)