Vessel to drive, empty, at reasonable lick (8)
I believe the answer is:
decanter
'vessel' is the definition.
(decanter is a kind of vessel)
'drive empty at reasonable lick' is the wordplay.
'empty' says to hollow out the word (remove centre letters).
'at' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'reasonable lick' becomes 'canter' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'drive' with its centre taken out is 'de'.
'de'+'canter'='DECANTER'
'to' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for decanter that I've seen before include "Provider of drink" , "Type of carafe" , "glass full of drink" , "Stoppered glass container for alcohol" , "Vessel with stopper for serving wine" .)