University, particular one associated with Republican defeat (7)
I believe the answer is:
repulse
'defeat' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'university particular one associated with republican' is the wordplay.
'university' becomes 'U' (abbreviation for university).
'particular one' becomes 'lse' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'associated with' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'republican' becomes 'rep'.
'u'+'lse'='ulse'
'ulse' put after 'rep' is 'REPULSE'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for repulse that I've seen before include "Be disgusting - drive back" , "Beat back" , "Rebuff, drive back" , "Fend off" , "kick in the teeth" .)