Nearly discard British pound (5)
I believe the answer is:
throb
'pound' is the definition.
(I know that throb is a more specific form of the action pound)
'nearly discard british' is the wordplay.
'nearly' means to remove the last letter.
'discard' becomes 'throw' (I've seen this before).
'british' becomes 'b' (abbreviation e.g. in 'BBC').
'throw' with its final letter taken off is 'thro'.
'thro'+'b'='THROB'
(Other definitions for throb that I've seen before include "Beat strongly" , "Vibrate with rhythm like heart" , "Have strong or irregular heartbeat" , "Beat quickly from excitement etc" , "Beat like heart" .)