Try to discourage Garda from the drink (8)
I believe the answer is:
dispirit
'try' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both to do with human feelings as well as being verbs in their base form.
Perhaps there's a link between them I don't understand?
'discourage garda from the drink' is the wordplay.
'discourage garda' becomes 'di' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'from' says to put letters next to each other.
'the drink' becomes 'spirit' (I've seen this before).
'di'+'spirit'='DISPIRIT'
'to' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for dispirit that I've seen before include "Cause to feel low or depressed" , "Make hopeless" , "Cause to be downhearted" , "Discourage" , "Weigh" .)