Release the sailor to provide the answer (7)
I believe the answer is:
absolve
'release' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'sailor to provide the answer' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'sailor' could be 'ab' (abbreviation for able seaman) and 'ab' is located in the answer.
'answer' could be 'solve' and 'solve' is present in the answer.
No letters remain.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
'the' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for absolve that I've seen before include "Excuse" , "Declare (someone) free of guilt" , "Lob vase (anag.)" , "Grant pardon for" , "free of error" .)