Sailors love poor excuse (7)
I believe the answer is:
absolve
'excuse' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'sailors love poor' is the wordplay.
'sailors' becomes 'abs' (AB is short for able seaman).
'poor' indicates an anagram.
'love' is an anagram of 'olve'.
'abs'+'olve'='ABSOLVE'
(Other definitions for absolve that I've seen before include "Declare (someone) blameless" , "Grant remission of a sin" , "Forgive sins" , "Declare (someone) guilt-free" , "Free (a person) from guilt" .)