Sailors led by south wind (5)
I believe the answer is:
screw
'wind' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'sailors led by south' is the wordplay.
'sailors' becomes 'crew' (I've seen this before).
'led by' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'south' becomes 's' ('S' can be a synonym of 'south').
'crew' put after 's' is 'SCREW'.
(Other definitions for screw that I've seen before include "Helical thread" , "Prison officer (slang)" , "Fastener with a tapered threaded shank" , "Wood fastener" , "Prison guard, colloquially" .)