Sober soldier in pub (7)
I believe the answer is:
logical
'sober' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'soldier in pub' is the wordplay.
'soldier' becomes 'GI' (GI can mean a US soldier).
'in' indicates putting letters inside.
'pub' becomes 'local' (one's local pub).
'gi' going into 'local' is 'LOGICAL'.
(Other definitions for logical that I've seen before include "Sound" , "entirely reasonable" , "In accordance with reason" , "Consistent with reason" , "Deductive" .)